A Confluence of Hearts
by Gordon Pasha
Summary: 101 Dalmatians: The Series / Alpha and Omega crossover. A white dog and a white wolf each leave everything behind in order to start anew. Their paths cross, they become friends. But they soon realize that this meeting was not just chance. Now, as dark forces try to take their lives and their very souls, they must have faith in the mystical connection and the destiny they share.
1. The Moon

**Hey, everyone. Remember that new Cadpig story I promised you? Here it is, and I'm very excited because this is a special one. It is the very first crossover between _101 Dalmatians_ and _Alpha and Omega_ on FanFiction and the focus is on my two all-time favorite female characters: Cadpig and Lilly. **

**This is going to be great. Without further ado, read on and welcome as we join:**

* * *

_**Cadpig and Lilly**_

_**in**_

_**A Confluence of Hearts**_

* * *

**"All that we are is the result of what we have thought; we are formed and molded by our thoughts."**

**- Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha**

* * *

**I. The Moon. I.**

* * *

The full moon shined, silvery and bright – almost as bright as its sister orb which dominates the heavens during day – over the lush fields of Grutely. It was a sweet, melancholy moon tonight, the kind which makes one want to rest quietly and sleep under its gentle rays. Cadpig sighed at the sight.

So many moons like this one had she seen in the past months. So many moons had she had no one to share them with. No more brothers or sisters to chat with on warm summer nights, no more friends to find frolicsome adventures with. Up high in the loft of the barn, looking into the distance, Cadpig was all alone.

Well, not all alone. She still had her parents and her pets. She still had her friends among the barnyard animals – most of them, at any rate. But all her brothers and sisters were gone now, adopted by new families and living in new homes. Those companions of her youth, whom she loved more than any others – well, they were gone now. And none would return, for they had new lives and new worlds to enjoy.

But Cadpig could not have the same happiness. Though she had now grown into a proud and dignified Dalmatian, and though maintaining her characteristic long ears and the large blue eyes that sparkled, still she was the runt. And nobody ever wants the runt. So she had to watch people come and people go, always choosing anyone but the runt. It was hard even for someone like Cadpig, who believed in the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction and all that, to maintain a cheerful and upbeat attitude when faced with ninety-seven separate rejections. Cadpig had always been interested in past lives, and she could say now that she had seen many lives pass by without her receiving a single one.

All because she was the runt. For once, the universe seemed as though it was playing a cruel trick on her. As the silver orb danced in Cadpig's shining azure eyes, she wondered why fate had allotted this to her. Surely, this could not be what she was meant to do with her life, waste it away sulking. Then what should she do? What could she do?

As Cadpig studied the moonlit sky and the fixed stars within, she lifted a chant to the heavens:

Oh, shining Moon! that dances high above

In you is incarnate the soul of love,

Why then do you not come save me?

Why do you not set my heart free?

You are joyous and kind in the upper air

But what of when you are needed _down here?_

The dog, the wolf that howls to you in faith

Is driven mad, like a haunted wraith

By your omnipotent lunacy

Is that to be the only legacy

Of our worship of you?

When she had said these things, Cadpig sighed again and looked away from the window. Give it time, her parents had said. Someone will take you home, her parents had said. And yet, it never came to be. Cadpig was still left completely alone.

Then, suddenly, Cadpig picked up her head and smiled. She had an idea. Maybe the problem was not her, but her surroundings. A change of scenery – some place she could connect with stronger local auras – might just do the trick. And besides, what was she really leaving behind?

Cadpig was there when the train rolled into the Stiffle station. She did not hesitate. It was goodbye to the farm life she had come to know so well. But it was time to go. Cadpig felt with a spiritual certainty that it was time to go. She did not look back. She would not look back.

With a swift leap, she was in the train car. She did not for a moment look back. Her eyes were too strongly focused ahead, where new adventures beckoned over the horizon.

The moon that stood proudly in the sky seemed to mock Lilly. She would have thought it was a beautiful sight, had it come at any other time. But now, its happiness seemed to taunt her misery and increase it a thousand-fold.

* * *

Lilly was looking up at it from one of the high peaks of the central mountain, beside Eve, Winston, and Tony. The three parents of the packs were looking upward to the highest spot on the ridge, the very summit, where Kate and Garth stood, howling together.

It was the day of the marriage that united the two packs. Kate had returned with Humphrey just as war was about to break out. She had vowed to marry Garth. And now they had. Humphrey had disappeared somewhere, but Lilly did not really care where. She only cared about how her heart seemed to break with every note of the song the mates were singing.

The song Lilly had taught Garth to sing in the first place.

Tears came to Lilly's eyes as she remembered this. She had been to blame, she felt, for even teaching Garth how to howl properly in the first place. Had she not taught him to howl from the heart, he could never have broken _hers_.

_Silly Omega!_ Was her reaction. It was her own fault, she told herself, for loving above her station. Even though she was a daughter of the Western Pack leaders, she had always been the failure and the outcast and was treated no better than the lowliest wolf in the pack. Scratch that, she _was_ the lowliest wolf in the pack.

Had her parents and Tony been listening properly, they would have heard how hollow Garth and Kate's melody sounded, how soulless their voices. But nobody was paying much attention to that. Everyone was too happy. Everyone except Lilly.

Even someone as meek and gentle as Lilly had a breaking point. Lilly had just reached it. She could not do what she thought she would do, simply put on a false smile and accept that the love of her life would never be hers, but her sister's. But she also knew that she did not have the strength – either of body or of personality – to demand Garth for herself no matter what the world said. Lilly fell into despair as she realized that she was caught between two alternatives, each equally horrible. Both only promised more heartache.

Then a small thought occurred to her. She could just leave. She could leave this valley and this life and this pain forever. She scolded herself for ever thinking such a foolish thought. But what if it were possible….

Later that night, Lilly steadied her shivering body and leapt with all her might into the train speeding through Jasper. It was a hard landing, but given what Lilly had suffered, it did not phase her much. What pained her more was the thought of leaving everything behind, everything she had always known. Lilly's luminous lavender lights turned one last forlorn glance toward Jasper as it sped quickly out of sight.

* * *

I cannot say which of these two events happened first, or whether the white dog or the white wolf first boarded the train. The truth was that neither Cadpig nor Lilly could even say. All they knew was that they gradually became aware of each other's presence in the train-car. Neither of them could remember where the other had come from or whether they had already been there. They just knew that there they were.

But this did not encourage immediate comradeship between the two. For a number of hours, neither of them made any attempt to interact. Mostly, they tried to ignore each other. They kept to themselves in their own corners. Cadpig had founded a piece of cloth which would make a decent yoga mat and spent most of the night in meditation, busying her mind by emptying it. Lilly just studied her paws and silently mourned the shattering of her heart.

They occasionally showed interest in one another, but such interest was limited to a suspicious glance by one toward the other as she tried to figure out whether her unlooked-for companion posed any sort of threat. It was, however, quite evident that neither was there to do the other harm. And so, in this way, by recognizing that they were not enemies, they began to accept each other's existence.

Still, there was not any true sort of interaction. Both were content, for the time being, to remain by themselves and within themselves. Well, Cadpig was content with this. Lilly still felt like she was being torn apart inside, but it was an emotion which she felt impossible to share. Nobody would understand it, she thought. So she had to keep it hidden, just like she always did. She had always had to keep her emotions hidden, because no one could ever understand.

But things were different now. Lilly could not hold it in any longer. She had been holding back her tears for hours and something inside of her would just not let it continue. Whether it was the melancholy hum and blasting noise of train upon tracks, or the sorrowful beauty of the orange streaks of light breaking through darkened clouds as the dawn approached, Lilly could not be sure. But she could feel that something had knocked down the floodgates and knew that the flood was loosed. Her tears swirled down her gentle snout and the soft strands of her mane with a capricious force that many would find frightening to behold.

Cadpig got up. She walked over to where Lilly sat crying to herself and sat down beside her. She put her foreleg around Lilly's shoulder and let Lilly's head fall upon her own. She held her there, letting her cry out all of the secret sorrows that bewildered her heart. A pure heart poured itself out to a pure heart without a word even being said.

* * *

**Read on.**


	2. The Sun

**Here is our second chapter. Like our two heroines, we move unabated.**

* * *

**II. The Sun. II.**

* * *

Cadpig liked Lilly. The sensitive, quiet girl was not like anyone she had ever known, but she made a good companion. It had taken some prodding to get Lilly to finally open up about her past – to open up at all, really – but it was not hard to tell that there was much the she-wolf would rather keep hidden.

That first day on the train, after Lilly had finished crying, she did not offer much of an explanation as to what had caused her to so thoroughly water the dead-trees that made up the floor. Instead, looking slightly embarrassed by the display, she had curled up in the morning light and turned her gaze blankly on the unfamiliar scenery that were just being revealed by the newborn sun.

"Now, I'm the last person to pry," Cadpig had said, "but I've got this crazy hunch you've got a problem. You want to talk about it?'

"No," Lilly answered in little more than a whisper.

"You won't feel better unless you talk it out," Cadpig said. "Conflict-resolution is all about communication, you know. Well. it's ninety-percent communication, ten percent telling the bickering blockheads to shut up and start loving each other or you'll knock the pulp out of 'em!"

"I know all about conflict resolution," Lilly muttered, more to herself than Cadpig. "I _am_ an Omega, after all." Otherwise, she did not let the Dalmatian know how familiar these words sounded.

"A what?" Cadpig said with a smile, happy that she had gotten Lilly to share some information about herself.

"Sorry…." Lilly answered once she realized she had been overheard. She sounded as though she was ashamed of having said anything.

"No, that's alright, really!" Cadpig had said as enthusiastically as she could (which was quite enthusiastically), but it was no use. Not another word would come out of Lilly, no matter how much verbal poking or prodding Cadpig gave her.

By now, Cadpig had deduced her first salient fact about Lilly; she was shy.

Cadpig smiled with understanding. She knew that the shy ones needed more looking after and a gentler touch in order to open up. This Cadpig knew how to give, despite what some of her siblings had alleged back on the farm. She remained by Lilly's side, pitying her. And if Lilly would not talk, she would have to be the one to do the talking.

Now, this might seem rather forward, but when one cries upon your shoulder for an hour or so, it does much to alleviate any awkwardness between you.

So Cadpig explained her life story, beginning with the beginning, as is natural. She told her of her birth, of how she barely survived birth and infancy, how she and her brothers had been stolen by a madwoman who wanted to make them into a coat, and so on and so on.

While Cadpig told this tale, she noticed that Lilly slowly became more and more receptive. Those gorgeous lavender eyes fixed themselves upon her and stared at her in rapt anticipation of each new word. When Cadpig got to a particularly humorous point in the story, involving her whole family getting covered in soot for some reason that escaped her at the moment, she could swear she saw Lilly's tail wag. She was getting through to her.

"So then, me, my parents, our pets, and my ninety-seven brothers and sisters all moved to this old farm out in the country," Cadpig said.

Lilly's eyes grew even wider and her jaw dropped. "Ninety-seven… brothers and sisters?" she asked, unable to fathom such a thing.

Cadpig chuckled at her amazement. "Yep. That's a lot, isn't it?" And she saw her opening. "Do you have any brothers or sisters, Lilly? Less than ninety-seven, I would guess."

Lilly's eyes suddenly darkened and she turned her head away. "Always felt like it," she muttered to herself.

"What's that?" Cadpig asked. She had heard well enough, but she needed Lilly to open up more.

"One. I have one," Lilly said, closing her eyes as she mentally kicked herself for saying anything.

"Brother or sister?"

"Yeah."

"Hurray for ambiguity!" Cadpig proclaimed in her half-charming, half-sarcastic way.

Lilly quickly hid her face in her tail.

Cadpig put a paw on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, er…. Not to sound rude, but you never mentioned your name."

"Lilly," the white wolf said, though it came out as more of a sob.

"Oh, Lilly, what a lovely name!" Cadpig said. "Just like the flower. You know, I positively adore the lily flower. Don't you?"

Lilly cautiously turned her eyes back to Cadpig. "Yeah, I guess."

Then something seemed to occur to the white wolf. But she clearly did not want to say it. Cadpig waited for her, giving her a look with those brilliant blue eyes that said, 'Go ahead.' Finally, Lilly worked up the courage to speak. "W-w-what's your name?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" the Dalmatian said. "It's Cadpig!"

Lilly chuckled a bit. "That's a funny name!"

Cadpig was slightly annoyed at her name being called funny. She was rather sensitive about anything that could be construed as a personal criticism. But Lilly was laughing now, so she chose to ignore those feelings this time. "Come on, it's a normal enough name!" she said playfully. "It's Cadpig. You know, a runt!"

At these words, Lilly suddenly sat up and looked with astonished curiosity into Cadpig's bright and smiling face. "You mean, you're a runt too?"

Cadpig's smile faltered a bit. "Yeah. Do you know what it's like having ninety-seven siblings and being the runt of the entire litter?"

Lilly slowly shook her head. "No… but it can't be any worse than having an older sister who always does everything better than everyone. Then your parents never show you any love because they're too busy with how much better she is. And then, when there's something wrong with you–"

"Now I can't believe there's anything wrong with you!" Cadpig said. "You look perfectly normal to me!"

Lilly tilted her head. She was confused. Everybody always recognized what was wrong with her, the mark of horror she carried. Why did this strange creature not see it? Surely she should, being as white as herself. Was she color-blind to that or something? Lilly wondered.

But for some reason, Cadpig did not understand, and Lilly knew she would have to try and explain the hard facts to her. She grabbed her bangs and let them cover her left eye as she held a few strands out. "This isn't normal," she said. Then she grabbed her tail and shook it lightly. "This isn't normal."

Finally, to emphasize her point, she blew back her bangs and looked Cadpig in the eyes, azure meeting lavender. "Whiteness isn't normal!"

Now Cadpig tilted her head. "So, you're saying… you're family isn't all white."

"No one is, no one but me," Lilly said. "And that's why I was always the weird wolf, the curse of the pack, the bad omen, the one no one ever loved or trusted. That's why I was _an Omega_ in a family that had always produced Alphas! Because I'm poor, little, white, useless Lilly!"

"Don't be silly, Lilly," Cadpig said, fully intending the rhyme. "Being different doesn't make you weird or a curse. Look at me! I'm different." She flapped her ears around with her paws. "Being so small and with big ears like these. People used to think I was weird but I tell you, none of them could pick up the barking chain all the way from Stiffle like I could!"

Lilly looked down to her paws. It had suddenly hit her how forceful she had been just moments ago. "Yeah, I guess…." she said as she retreated into herself again. But then, just as suddenly, her head sprung up. "But that's not the only thing that makes you different! You're just as white as I am! Well, except for those weird black spots."

"Hmmmm…." Cadpig intoned, the remains of an angry growl that she had just managed to force down. She knew Lilly could not be intentionally insulting her. "Believe it or not, Lilly, but this is normal where I come from. All Dalmatians look like this."

"Oh," Lilly said, smiling and looking down in embarrassment. "Maybe I should have been a Dalmatian and not a wolf. Maybe then, people would have liked me."

"I hate to break it to you," Cadpig joked, "but all us Dalmatians have these spots, too. If you were just pure white like that, it would make you a real oddball!"

Lilly sniffled a little. Cadpig realized her mistake.

"I didn't mean that. Really, I didn't. It was supposed to be a joke. You're not odd, who and whatever you are."

But Lilly was not responding to this. Time to be a little more blunt. And Cadpig knew a little something about being blunt.

Cadpig shook her head at Lilly's self-pity and clasped her paw once again on Lilly's shoulder. "There's a purpose for everything in this great big universe of ours – you've just got to find yours!"

"But… but… I thought I had already found mine," Lilly said quietly. "And then it all fell apart. He left me."

Cadpig's smile and her whole expression became furtive. She turned her head slightly away but continued to look at Lilly as though the wolf had a dirty little secret. "Mph, I should have known this was all over a guy!"

"He was… wasn't just any guy," Lilly said, trying every way she could to avoid Cadpig's gaze. "He was the love of my life. And then he left me… for my sister. The sister who always got everything she wanted. And now she's got him. They got married, just like my mom and dad and everybody always wanted. Nobody ever cared what I wanted, not even him. That's why I left."

Cadpig nodded. Lilly had done it; she had opened up to her at last. And she could tell that Lilly did not even realize she had, the poor thing. Cadpig got lost in thinking about what she had been told and the type of life Lilly must have lived before they met. If there was one thing Cadpig believed in – there were many things Cadpig believed in, but if there was one central thing – it was love. Love as an active, powerful force that cradled the entire universe gently but yet firmly in its embrace. To see such love perverted almost was enough to make her own heart break. And she knew a thing or two about breaking hearts.

"So why did you leave?" Lilly said after a few moments of silence, breaking Cadpig out of her reverie. It was quite unexpected that the shy she-wolf would take the initiative like that.

Cadpig tried to put a happy smile on things, but it came off rather wistful. "I left because nobody wanted me," she said.

"Oh," Lilly said with a small nod. Her eyes began to dart away, but they quickly returned to Cadpig. "Just like me then."

Cadpig's eyes turned somewhat downward to think about this. A few moments later, they moved back to Lilly. She nodded. "Yeah, just like you."

Then, suddenly, Cadpig's ears perked up, making them resemble for a single moment a much larger version of a typical Dalmatian's. She had heard the train-whistle. They were coming, for the first time that either of them could remember, to a station. Before Lilly even realized what was happening, Cadpig ran to the open car-door.

"What is it?" Lilly said, surprised.

Cadpig was looking out the door, her head hovering in the sun-filled landscape around. "We're coming to someplace. A town by the looks of it!"

"Oh, then what do we do?" Lilly said, completely at a loss. She had not planned the journey out this far.

Cadpig turned back to her. "Well, it's a good a place as any to look for a new home," she said. "Why don't you come with me and we'll check it out?"

Lilly stepped forward a little – thought it seemed like a great leap for her – to see what Cadpig was looking at. As the sunlight washed over her, she looked with her companion toward the large man-made building in the distance. It was a sight Lilly had never seen and one she had never expected to see.

She was not ready to see it. She could not comprehend it. It was not real to her, but a strange dream castle somehow appearing in her waking hours. She retreated into the interior of the car, away from the all-seeing gaze of the sun. She sat down and looked as though she was only there in body, as though the shock of the bizarre sight had knocked her soul clean loose. Cadpig quickly ran and sat beside her.

"You can't trust anybody anymore," Lilly said, still like she was not there. "I used to believe you could trust everybody. But then everybody hurt me."

"There are still people worth trusting in this world," Cadpig said.

"Like who?" Lilly muttered.

Cadpig put her foreleg around Lilly. "There's always me. Even if you can't trust anybody else, you can always trust me."

When Lilly said nothing in response, Cadpig added, "And I think I can always trust you."

Still nothing. Cadpig could not even tell if Lilly had heard her. But she was certain Lilly would, for now Cadpig had an idea. "How about we agree right now that, no matter what happens, we'll always trust each other and we'll always stick together. It'll be like our little friendship pact. What do you say?"

Lilly's eyes suddenly flickered upward and locked with Cadpig's. Cadpig could see that her companion was perhaps more stunned by this offer than by the strange civilian scene she had just seen.

"Yeah, let's do that," Lilly said, her voice nearly stolen by her awe. "Let's trust each other. Let's stick together."

Cadpig winked. "Okie-dokie, then! From now on, we're best friends."

And so the golden kingly sun smiled in joy to know a new thing had been born under his reign.

* * *

**Two friends find each other, but what happens now?**

**Read on.**


	3. The Fool

**Here is our next chapter, in which Cadpig and Lilly take the first steps toward a new life.**

* * *

**III. The Fool. III.**

* * *

The train pulled into the station. There was no time for hesitation. Cadpig leapt down from the car and onto the platform. Lilly followed slowly behind. She stood there at the edge, looking over nervously. Did she really want to do this?

"Come on, Lilly," Cadpig encouraged. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, they say."

"That's… a little more than a step," Lilly said as she examined the distance between herself and the platform.

"It'll be fine, especially for a strong wolf like you," Cadpig called back with another wink. She was trying to get Lilly's courage up. She knew she still had to be tender, but if Lilly took much longer, the train might leave with her still in it.

Lilly closed her eyes and backed up. "Well, okayyyy…." she said when she came to a stop. Without opening her eyes she ran forward and made the jump. For what felt like hours, she seemed to hover in the air as the world stopped around her. There was just her and the air. Lilly opened her eyes and smiled with joy. She had made it!

The first thing she saw was the ground just a few inches from her face. Soon her nose and then her whole head and then her whole body collided with it. She toppled over onto her back.

Cadpig stood over her. "See, it wasn't that bad! The landing needs _just a little _work, but you had nice form!"

Lilly slowly and clumsily got up, trying to shake the slight daze out of her head. "You… you think so?"

Cadpig nodded. "Sure! You'll be a pro at jumping out of trains in no time!" Then, mostly to herself, she added, "If only we could turn that into a broader skill…."

While Lilly still found her bearings, Cadpig looked around to find anybody or anything which could tell her where they were. Suddenly, she noticed an old Greyhound laying by the station-master's office.

"Well, I suppose he's as good a person to ask as any," she said.

Lilly followed slowly, without saying anything.

"Excuse me, sir," Cadpig said in her most cheerful way. "Would you mind telling us where we are? You see, we got on the train a while ago and have kinda… lost track of things."

The old Greyhound slowly lifted up his head, as though coming out of a deep sleep. Except that he still looked to be half in a deep sleep. But he spoke nonetheless. "We don't get many dogs coming on the cargo trains. You two must be strays."

"You could say that…" Cadpig began coyly.

"But I'm not a dog," Lilly whispered to Cadpig. "I'm a wolf."

Cadpig quickly shushed her and then nervously moved her eyes upward, encouraging Lilly's to follow. Above the Greyhound was a large notice stating that any wild predatory animals should be shot on sight.

"What did your friend say?" the old Greyhound said. "I'm getting on in years and am a bit hard of hearing."

"Yeah, we're strays," Cadpig answered. "I'm a Dalmatian and she's a Samoyed."

Lilly had no clue what a Samoyed was, but she thought it best to play along. It was for her own good, after all.

"Yeah," Lilly said, a little more loudly. "I'm not a wolf or anything."

"Overdoing it," Cadpig said quietly to Lilly.

But the Greyhound seemed satisfied with this line of questioning. "Well, you two girls are now in the town of Nortonsburg, California, just west of the Sierra Nevada range. It's not a big place, but we like it."

Cadpig smiled and thanked the Greyhound. But Lilly did not even notice; she had fallen into a reverie of sorts. Not a big place? How could the Greyhound say that? It looked larger than anything she had ever seen, she thought as she looked over at the tall buildings in the short distance. No tree, no mountain, had prepared her for the grandeur of these manmade structures.

"Lilly. _Lilly!_"

Lilly was snapped out of her trance. She saw Cadpig walking up slightly ahead of her, signaling for her to catch up. With a small, embarrassed smile, Lilly did.

"Now you two girls be careful out there," the Greyhound said. "This town may be small, but it still ain't the kindest place for strays!"

Both Cadpig and Lilly waved goodbye and continued onward, neither taking the warning much to heart. Both had been used to receiving such advice of that kind before. Cadpig never listened to it, Lilly always listened to it. And yet, both of them had come to the same place in the end.

* * *

"I don't get it," Lilly said as she and Cadpig walked through the half-empty streets of Nortonsburg. "Why would they want to shoot me for being a wolf?"

"Wolves aren't a common sight in cities," Cadpig explained. "When one shows up, people get kinda scared."

"Oh," Lilly said quietly, her eyes turning downward to the pavement. "I didn't know I was scary…."

Cadpig sighed as she looked at her companion. "Oh, we're not having another pity party again, are we? Lilly, you're not scary. It's just that people don't understand."

"Why don't they understand? I've never done anything to them!"

"I know, Lilly, but that's just the way it is."

"I don't want people to be afraid of me."

"And they won't be, but you just have to be smart about it. If anybody asks you, say you're a Samoyed. You're not a wolf, got it?"

Lilly lifted up her head long enough to tilt it. "Got it, I guess."

Cadpig nodded. "Okay, stick to that and you'll do fine. See, the trick is that you just have to be kind and caring and gentle and always treat other canines with respect no matter what they do or how they do it. You just have to forgive and forget. You have to – oof!"

As Cadpig had been looking at Lilly, she did not notice the other canine until they were upon each other. Both fell to the ground, but Cadpig did not even seem to spend a second on it. She was quickly on her feet again.

"Why, you little punk!" she shouted. "Don't you pay any attention to where you're going? Just who do you think you are, walking all over us like that?"

"Cadpig," Lilly said nervously, "I, uh, I thought you said to always be gentle and forgive no matter what."

"There's exceptions to every rule." Cadpig answered.

The other canine picked himself up. This was the first time the two had a chance to get a good look at him, or even see that it was a 'him' in the first place. He was not overly tall, being just a small bit taller than Lilly, but his thin, lanky body and scraggily fur gave him the appearance of being much taller. He was black-furred for the most part, except for a streak of white running down his chest and some patches elsewhere which had greyed before their time. His mane was just as scraggily as the rest of his fur, and its most notable feature consisted two large strands of hair coming down, one hovering over each eye. But there was a more curious thing about his eyes – or, more precisely, what was in front of them. He was wearing a fine-gilt pair of pince-nez spectacles, attached by a cord to the purple collar around his neck.

As he regained himself, he scrambled around to pick up the pen and little note-book he had been carrying. As he stood up, he glared at Cadpig. "Watch where I'm going?" he barked. "Watch where I'm going? How about you pay a bit more attention when a distinguished individual is coming your way!"

"A distinguished individual?" Cadpig mocked. "You don't look very distinguished to me!"

He growled. "You can tell by my purple color that I'm a gentleman and a scholar!***** I'll have you know that someday I'm going to win the Nobel Prize!"

"Oh, I think I'll be winning a Nobel Peace Prize long before you will," Cadpig answered, her eyes narrowing. "Definitely. The Peace Prize is mine!"

Lilly looked back and forth between them without a clue as to what she should do. The situation was escalating. She was an Omega; it was her job to calm things down and stop the bickering. But that was a job, too, which she had never felt very good at.

"Oh, I don't want a Nobel Peace Prize," he answered. "They only give that to people in India who build houses for orphans and unimportant stuff like that. No, I'm going for the real prize; the Literature Prize!"

"You're teeth'll become orphans if you continue talking like that," Cadpig said sharply. Somehow sweetly, but still sharply.

"Hey, I know," Lilly said nervously. "Does anybody want to see some turtle impressions?"

The male tried to write something down in his book but his pen had been jammed by the fall. He shook it to try and get it to write again, but it kindly rewarded him for his efforts by squirting dark black ink all over the page, covering completely the very lines he had been working on all morning.

"You brute!" he yelled. "You've ruined my masterpiece! How am I supposed to win the Literature Prize now?"

"You'll live," Cadpig answered sardonically.

"Not if I don't get something else written!" he protested. "I am a _poet_, after all!"

"Ha! You, a poet!" Cadpig guffawed. "More like a potato from the looks of you!"

Lilly could not help laughing at that. Cadpig smiled; at least Lilly knew what a potato was, apparently.

But the poet was getting flustered. "Oh, you people just don't understand culture!"

"What we don't understand is rudeness!" Cadpig barked back. "There's no need to be rude around here!"

"Cadpig," Lilly whispered. "I thought conflict resolution involved stopping fights, not starting them."

Suddenly, Cadpig's eyes grew wide. She began to calm down. She smiled at the harried poet. "You know what?" she said. "How about we just forget about it? Let bygones be bygones!"

"Thanks for that, Lilly," Cadpig whispered over her shoulder to her friend.

The poet did not know how to respond by this sudden change in temperament. "Okay?" He said, trying to go along with it. For, however he may have seemed, he was not truly a fighter at heart.

"Well, let's start things over," Cadpig said happily. "What's your name?"

The male suddenly stiffened up proudly as he said in a booming voice, "Walton Bradby Yards, illustrious poet, at your service!"

He offered a paw to Cadpig who, surprised by the gesture, took a moment to shake it. Then he offered it to Lilly, who just looked at it blankly, being even more surprised by this than Cadpig had been. She took a step back and looked to Cadpig, who nodded encouragingly. Lilly took it and gave it a limp shake.

"Now I didn't catch either of your names," Walton said.

"Oh, I'm Cadpig and I'm a Dalmatian. This is Lilly and she's a Samoy–"

"A wolf!" Walton exclaimed as soon as he turned his gaze to Lilly.

Cadpig and Lilly jointly shushed him. Both looked around nervously to ensure that nobody had heard this.

"Oh, don't worry," Walton said. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm half-wolf myself, on my father's side. He's what they call a lone-wolf. And a painter, but that's neither here nor there. My mom's one of the most successful champion show-dogs on the west coast!"

"But the humans had a sign that said they'd kill wolves," Lilly said, understandably very frightened by the prospect.

"Oh, well, if the humans know, of course they'll kill you!" Walton said. "So don't tell them!"

"I… wasn't going to," Lilly said quietly, stunned and shamed by the strength of Walton's answer.

Cadpig spoke up to defend her. "Lilly's not used to towns or dogs. We're still working on that and she doesn't really need to be confused right now."

Walton suddenly realized something. "Wait, I've never seen either of you before. You too aren't from around here, are you?"

Both females shook their heads.

"I'm from Jasper Park, Alberta, Canada," Lilly recited like a schoolgirl, though she quickly hid behind Cadpig after she said it.

"I'm from Grutely…. er, somewhere over there!" Cadpig waved her hand breezily in the direction of the east.

A wide grin developed on Walton's face. "Well, you two need someone to show you around, don't you?"

Lilly nodded a little behind Cadpig. "That would be nice," Cadpig said.

"Then just come with me!" Walton said as he began to step forward. "I know this town like the back of my paw!"

He then suddenly stopped. "Hold on. What town are we in, again?"

"Nortonsburg," Cadpig said.

"Oh, right! As I was saying, I know this town like the back of my paw! Just follow me and everything will be okay!"

As he walked forward, Cadpig and Lilly stayed behind. Lilly gave Cadpig a deeply worried look.

"Well, it'll be an adventure if nothing else," Cadpig said with a shrug and a smile.

Quickly, they followed after the poet, catching up to him in no time. Thus, these three unlikely companions joined together in the center of town.

From the shadows, a figure wrapped in a royal-blue cloak watched. "Don't mess this up, Yards," he whispered. "Don't you dare mess this up, or the brethren shall not be happy about it. They shall not be happy at all…."

* * *

***A takeoff of the famous lines written by Robert Burns in "The Twa Dogs."**

* * *

**Who is this mysterious figure and what dark schemes do his words signify?**

**Read on.**


	4. The Lovers

**Here is our next chapter, wherein Cadpig receives a blast from the past. How shall she respond? **

**And what about the people she and Lilly left behind?**

* * *

**IV. The Lovers. IV.**

* * *

Garth and Tony sat on a hillside in the former Eastern Pack territory. The sun was beginning to set below the horizon and the whole of the valley was covered in an eerie orange twilight. But Tony could care less as he beamed proudly at the son of his own.

"Garth, I want you to know how proud I am of you," he said. "When I caught you howling with an Omega, I thought you were forgetting your place in the pack. But then you came through in the end, just like I raised you to do. Now I can rest easier knowing that you're truly ready to be a pack leader."

Garth tried to keep his father from seeing how much these words stung him. He had married Kate to make his father happy and because he thought it was his duty to the pack. Garth had believed that, even if he could not be with Lilly, he could still see her around rather frequently and that maybe that would make up in some way for what he had done to her. But now she was gone. Lilly had disappeared the night of their marriage and nobody knew where she was.

Garth felt terrible. While Winston and Eve expressed complete bewilderment at why she left, both Garth and Kate knew they had driven her away, just like they had driven away Humphrey. But Humphrey had at least a chance of surviving in the wider world – he was what the humans called "street-smart" and could adapt to any situation. But that was something which could not be said about naïve, sheltered Lilly. She would never be able to survive on her own; Garth was certain of it.

Later, as he returned to his den, he saw Kate, looking as sad and depressed as he did. They sat down across from each other, neither one speaking up. They just sat there in silence, as they had done the night of their marriage.

"We can't stay like this," one of them said at last. Whether it was Kate or Garth is of no consequence, for they themselves would not later be able to say. But at that moment, both were already agreed. This could not be their life.

"What do we do now?" Garth said. "We can't pretend to be happy after what we did to Lilly and Humphrey."

Kate shook her head. "No, we can't. And we can't pretend like we've done anything good for the pack. We did this for the good of the pack, but the more I look at it, the less good it seems."

"I know what you mean," Garth said. "We may have destroyed two lives all because of what some old custom told us to do. And we're going to have to live with that forever."

"I know," Kate said. "But we have to fix things. Somehow, we have to make everything right. We have to tell the world that we're in love with Omegas. We have to do this, no matter what. But first… we have to find them."

Both nodded in agreement. For the first time since they had met, they felt like they actually were of one heart on something. They had to do this, consequences or no.

"I'll find Humphrey," Kate said.

Garth's response came naturally, "And I'll find Lilly."

* * *

Pongo and Perdita stood together on a hill not far outside Dearly Farm as the twilight ended and darkness came on. Together, they waited. They waited silently, but with a shared understanding in their hearts that no words could possibly have made stronger.

Finally, after what seemed to be hours of waiting, a noise came from afar. It was something between a series of barks and a howl, seeming to combine elements of both. Pongo and Perdita listened intently. Was this the message they had been waiting for?

They listened for a moment. No. It was merely an advertisement for a new kind of chew-toy, the testimonial of a satisfied customer. The Dalmatians' ears and hearts dropped. It seemed as though they would be left in doubt and anxiety.

But then they heard it. Another series of barking howls, another rattle of the barking chain, this one conveying the message they had been waiting for. But this too would leave them in doubt and anxiety. For it told them what they dreaded to hear; no trace of Cadpig had yet been found anywhere in the state.

"Oh, Pongo, what do we do now?" Perdita asked in alarm.

Pongo sighed. "If nobody else can find her, we'll just have to find her ourselves. We've done it before, so we can do it again."

"At least it is only one pup this time," Perdita responded. "It should not be as hard as locating ninety-eight. Or it may be harder."

The two contemplated this in silence for a moment. They were resolute and did not doubt for a moment their mission, their duty as parents. But they could not help but be worried. And both knew that the other was worried. Perhaps it was this shared knowledge that gave them the strength they would now need.

Finally, Pongo's voice broke the gloom.

"Perdy, do you think she'll be alright?"

Perdita did not hesitate. She had somehow known her answer all along, long before the question had even been thought.

"There was a time, when she was young, that we did not think she could survive her first winter. But she did. And she's survived so many things after that, with odds that no pup should have survived. There was always something special about her, the type of thing only a mother can see. Maybe I should have told her that more so that she would not have felt so neglected. I don't know, I don't even know how I would have explained it. But there is one thing I do know. My daughter is a survivor, Pongo; I know that. She will survive."

* * *

Lilly walked somewhat behind her two companions as they passed through the streets of Nortonsburg. Up ahead, Cadpig and Walton were discoursing on various topics of mystical philosophy, using words which made Lilly's head spin. So she had contented herself with falling back and half-listened to them while looking in awe at all the strange new sights that presented themselves to her.

"Of course, we all reincarnate," Cadpig said. "We've all been here probably hundreds and thousands of times before. And we'll keep reincarnating until we fulfill our purpose in this world."

"I'm know souls reincarnate," Walton responded. "But what I'm saying is, it's like we're all spinning in a giant… a giant… washing machine!"

"A giant washing machine?" Cadpig exclaimed in confusion.

"Actually, it's more like two washing machines spinning around each other forever and ever!" Walton explained, getting increasingly excited as he did so.

Cadpig considered this. "Hmm, interesting idea."

Walton was really revved up now. "Yeah, and everybody, it's like they're all influenced by the moon, like the moon influences the tides and causes the water to spin like… like… water in a washing machine!"

"I don't mean to criticize," Cadpig said in that unique way of hers in which she begins gently but ends forcefully, "but if you're going to be a great poet, you've got to come up with some better metaphysical metaphors than giant spinning washing machines."

"Hey, did I criticize that 'cosmic surfboard' metaphor you used before?"

"Well, in fact, you did!"

"But that was only because – hey, what were we doing again?"

Cadpig rolled her eyes. Walton had had three such outbursts of forgetfulness in the time it took them to walk to where he was taking them. "You were taking us to the local canine club," she said.

"Oh, right," Walton said. "The canine club, I know where that is! Follow me!"

Cadpig let Walton stride forward and fell back to walk with Lilly. "How you holding up back here?" she asked.

"There's so much to see," Lilly said, her lavender eyes filled with wonder. "You lived in a place like this?"

"Yeah, once," Cadpig answered. "But that was a long time ago."

"That must have been amazing," Lilly responded as her head rapidly swayed and swerved, trying to take in every single sight.

Cadpig smiled wistfully, remembering her early puppyhood in Topstown. "Actually, you kinda get used to it over time. But now that you mention it, it all was kinda amazing."

Cadpig watched happily as Lilly's eyes and head danced and darted around like those of a small child. She was glad that Lilly was finally enjoying herself.

But both were soon brought out of this state when Walton theatrically bellowed, "We have arrived!"

The club, dubbed _The Bohemian Bloodhound_, was just a small place at the end of a narrow alleyway wherein several old chairs and a bar-area had been set up. But the surrounding buildings were all so tall that it was shielded near-completely from the sun and, as a result, looked dark and cool. Walton entered proudly while the two females stood cautiously at the entrance.

"This looks like the type of place my mother wouldn't approve of," Lilly said as she looked around.

"Come on, Lilly," Cadpig responded. "You won't know what you're missing until you dive in with all four feet! And besides, you don't live with your mother anymore, do you?"

A broken, awkward smile appeared on Lilly's face. "I guess… you're right. Okay, let's go, then!"

Both of them quickly followed Walton as he made his way through the club.

A stocky bulldog took note of his entrance and called out, "Morning, Mr. Yards! What can I do you for?"

With an overly-dramatic sweep of his paw, Walton answered, "Your finest water on the rocks, my good sir! And I mean the real stuff, the water that comes from the busted pipeline in the rich neighborhood. Two for my lady-friends as well."

"Yessir," said the bulldog as began to prepare the glasses.

Walton moved with the two white canines toward the end of the club, wherein a Jack Russell Terrier sat flipping through a book on Frisbees and drinking from a shot-glass.

"Morning, Russell," Walton said as he sat down in the old, beat-up chair opposite.

Cadpig and Lilly hesitantly took seats on either side of the duo.

"Why, Walton, you dog!" Russell responded as he looked up. "Here I'm worried that you're still out-of-sorts over Maud, and you come swaggering in here with two pretty girls practically hanging off your arm! I don't know how you do it!"

"Well, nobody's hanging off of anybody's arm," Cadpig remarked, clearly offended by the suggestion.

"Quite, quite," Walton said, apparently only half aware of this brewing disagreement. "Russell, you haven't met my friends, have you? Well, you couldn't have. I just met them myself. This is Cadpig."

Russell took Cadpig's paw and kissed it, making up for his original wrongdoing. "A pleasure, dear lady."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Cadpig responded.

Now Walton gestured toward the white wolf. "And this is Lollie."

Lilly grimaced at Cadpig as she heard her name misgiven. But she was too shy to say anything. Cadpig knew she would have to help her.

"Actually, it's Lilly," Cadpig said. "This is Lilly."

Russell took Lilly's paw and kissed it. "And a pleasure to meet you as well, my sweet."

Lilly giggled in response.

Introductions now aside, Walton got down to what was really on his mind. "So, where is Maud today, anyway?"

Russell let out a whimpering, whining noise as he processed the question. "And here I thought you were over her! Look at you, Walton, a lovely lady on either side of you and all you can think about is where Maud is. Who cares where Maud is? Maud isn't anywhere, as far as I'm concerned! Just let her go!"

"I thought I heard my name being called!" came a sharp, feminine voice behind them.

Russell buried his snout in his paws. Walton's face lit up more than either Cadpig or Lilly had thought possible in their short acquaintance with him. Now upon them was a gorgeous red-and-white Irish setter with beaming green eyes.

"Maud!" Walton practically shouted in joy. "How nice it is to see you! What have you been up to?"

Maud smiled deviously. "Just wait five seconds and you'll find out!"

And, five seconds later, the noise of an explosion rocked the club. And then they heard a man scream, "My truck!"

"That should teach the local dog-catcher not to impound my friends!" Maud proclaimed triumphantly.

Walton laughed in a far-away manner, as though he had no clue what was being said. "Ah, Maud, you and your little tricks!"

"We should see if anybody's hurt," Lilly said quietly to Cadpig.

Cadpig nodded and looked around for a way to excuse themselves. But then she noticed a fire-truck hurrying past the alleyway and realized everything would be fine.

Maud now had something else to say. "By the way, Walton, I'm having a little get-together later with some close friends. It's nothing really; we'll probably just break in a few windows, cripple a few cats, and maybe burn down the pound again. So, it's one of our usual get-togethers, but I'd love it if you could make it!"

Walton kept his dreamy far-away look. "I wouldn't miss it for the world," he said, though his tone of voice was such that it suggested he had no idea what had just been said.

"Good! See you there!" Maud said. And then she sauntered off toward the bar. The bulldog, upon seeing her coming, quickly hid as many of the glasses and bottles as he could. He even seemed to shiver a little.

"Well," Cadpig said, "it looks like somebody needs to work on restraining their violent tendencies!"

Walton now rested his chin upon his paw and gazed at Maud. "I know. She's just great, isn't she?"

"If by great, you mean possibly unhinged, I can see why you'd say that," Cadpig responded.

"He always gets like this," Russell said with a gruff shake of his head, "whenever she's around. She comes through the door and there's no talking to him. It's like he's off in fairyland or something."

"That's what happens when you're in love," Cadpig said. She heard Lilly deliver a barely audible 'hmph' when she said it.

"I suppose you're right, missy," Russell responded. "But you sound as though you talk from experience. You got anyone in your heart?"

Cadpig thought about this. She remembered a dog from her puppyhood, someone she had loved once but who had ended up breaking her heart. Yes, she knew how Walton felt. She pictured in her mind a Westie pup, extremely tall for his breed and probably containing the blood of a bigger dog somewhere in his line, with a bandana around his neck and a goofy smile on his face. She thought back to Jake.

And then, as far as she could tell, her vision materialized at the bar before her. For standing at the end, not far from where Maud was fighting the bulldog for a clear bottle, stood Jake. He was now taller, about as taller as her (and thus unbelievably tall for a Westie). He did not wear the bandana around his neck, but otherwise he looked exactly the same.

It was him. But how could it be him? Was Cadpig imagining things? She had not seen him in months – it felt like years, but it had only been months. And now, there he was.

"Excuse me for a sec," Cadpig said absently as she got up and began to approach Jake.

"But you haven't answered my question!" Russell exclaimed, to no avail. So then he turned to Lilly, who almost began shivering as she realized she would have to hold her own in a conversation with a complete stranger.

"And what about you, pet?" said he. "You got a special someone out there?"

Lilly let out a small noise and then quickly tried to force herself to say something more substantial. "Yeah… I-I do… I mean, no… I-I do-don't… I mean… I had one once but he… he… he dumped me for my sis-sister."

Lilly smiled in embarrassment, but also with a certain pride that she had gotten a full sentence out of her mouth.

"Now who would ditch a pretty thing like you for someone else?" Russell said. Then, a rather disconcerting grin appeared on his face. "Unless you're twins, that is…."

Lilly swiftly shook her head. "No, we're not twins; she's an Alpha."

"A what?"

Lilly kicked herself for having forgotten that she was not supposed to be a wolf. And from what she could tell, dogs did not have the same concept of Alphas and Omegas as wolves did. She tried to think of something to save herself.

"No, er, I mean… she's… we don't look anything alike… She's blonde, kinda." Lilly now looked to the floor, thoroughly ashamed of what she had come up with this time.

"Oh, a blonde, eh?" he said. "Ain't that always the way, though? But I tell you what, if this fella of yours was here right now, I'd bash his teeth in for leaving such a beautiful creature as yourself."

Lilly giggled in spite of herself. Trying to imagine the little terrier going up against Garth was too hilarious of a mental picture not to warrant such a response.

Meanwhile, Cadpig approached Jake. He was calmly looking off into the distance as he sipped ice-water from a glass. He did not even notice her coming until she was right on top of him. And when he saw her, he spilled the water all over himself.

"C-Cadpig!" he exclaimed.

"Hello, Jake, long time no see," Cadpig said, not bothering to hide the distain in her voice.

"C-C-Cadpig!" he said again, clearly not being able to fathom her sudden appearance.

"Yes, Jake, it's me," Cadpig answered, with a roll of her eyes.

"Cadpig!"

"Snap out of it, would you!" Cadpig barked. "Yes, it's me! Now accept it and move on!"

Jake was still shaken, but he was not going to disobey this command. "You look… you look good. How ya been?"

"Fine," Cadpig said. "Just fine."

"What… what are you doing here? I mean… it's great… it's great to see you, Caddy, but what are you doing… this far west?"

"Oh, I was just touring California with my friend."

"Friend? What friend?"

At this point, Lilly arrived beside them, having gotten away from Russell as quickly as she could. She was blushing so badly that it was visible through her white fur and now her face was lit up a bright shade of red.

"What… a… creep! What a… dirty creep!" she said shakily, using harsher words than Cadpig thought possible of her. "That guy is… he's disgusting. Do you know what he said to me?"

"Later, Lilly, later," Cadpig said. "Right now, there's someone I want you to meet. Lilly, this is Jake, my ex-boyfriend. Jake, this is Lilly. Lilly is a Samoy–"

"A wolf!" Jake exclaimed in alarm.

Cadpig quickly shushed him. But nobody heard, because at that moment Maud, after winning control of the bottle, smashed it against the opposite wall. Just for fun.

Jake was quieter now, but no less alarmed. "Cadpig, that's a wolf! Your so-called friend is a wolf!"

"But I'm not… a bad wolf," Lilly said innocently.

She gently grabbed his paw and shook it a little. From what Lilly had gathered, this was the customary greeting among dogs. She felt shy about it, but she so wanted to fit in.

And then Jake knocked her paw away and pulled back to his chest.

"Don't touch me!" he commanded.

Lilly swiftly withdrew her limb and began to look small. In fact, she almost seemed on the verge of tears. Cadpig put her foreleg around her and hugged her, all the while glaring menacingly at Jake.

"There, there," Cadpig said. "He didn't mean it. He just has a natural talent for being uncouth and boorish."

Jake seemed touched by this white creature's sadness, even if she was a wolf. He put his paw on Lilly's arm. "Yeah, she's right. I didn't mean it. I just get jumpy around things that could potentially eat me. It's a character-flaw. It has nothing to do with you."

Lilly picked her head up. "You… you mean it?"

Jake smiled wearily. "Of course I do. Any friend of Cadpig's is, well…. So you're a wolf, huh? That's really something. Yep, that's definitely some sort of thing."

"Lilly is from Alberta," Cadpig said, hoping to change the subject to something more genial.

"Ah," Jake said, seeming to become more, rather than less, agitated at this remark. "Cadpig, can I talk to you alone for a second. Preferably alone? As in, just me and you? Alone, like?"

"Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of Lilly," Cadpig responded.

"No, this really can't be said except between us," Jake answered. And he pleaded with his eyes, those large brown eyes that Cadpig had once loved.

Cadpig sighed. Somehow, after so long, she still could not resist that look. "I'll be right back, Lilly," she said.

Jake and Cadpig walked a few feet away.

"What are you doing with someone like that?" Jake scolded.

"I can be friends with whomever I choose," Cadpig shot back.

Jake shook his head. "I know, but with one of _them?_"

"She happens to be a very nice person. You shouldn't judge based on what species she is. That's specieism."

"I am not a specieist! I just don't trust her kind."

"There you go, always judging people. Maybe if you tried to get to know her, you'd like her. But then you always did like the girls just a _teensy _bit too much, didn't you?"

Jake was becoming exasperated. "Cadpig, you're not listening to me. She's a vicious, deadly creature that could kill you in an instant and will if she ever gets hungry. Cadpig, don't you understand? She's a _Canadian_!"

Cadpig huffed. "You know, why don't you–"

But before she could finish that thought, she saw Russell saying something to Lilly. If she was mad before, Cadpig was furious now.

She stormed toward them. "Hey, no means no, buddy!" she barked. And then she delivered a powerful uppercut which sent Russell to the floor.

"No, Cadpig, no!" Lilly said, trying to restrain her.

"I like this girl," Maud said from around the bar-corner.

"Cadpig, he was apologizing!" Lilly said, almost pleading. "Please don't hurt him!"

Cadpig began to calm down. She smiled bashfully. "Oh, oops. Sorry, Russell. I didn't know you had a sense of decency."

"It's okay," Russell said from the floor. "Most people don't."

This ruckus had been enough to finally break Walton out of his Maud-obsessed stupor. Arriving as Cadpig and Lilly helped Russell up, he tried to piece things together.

"Cadpig, Russell, Lollie, what happened?" he asked with concern.

"The discussion got a bit animated, is all," Russell said as he regained his footing.

Then Walton looked behind them to see Jake sulking there. The look in his eyes seemed to suggest that he had come to his own conclusions about who had caused the problem.

"Oh, hello, Jake," he said contemptuously.

"Hello, Walton," Jake responded with equal contempt.

"You two have history, I take it," Cadpig interjected.

"Oh yes, we have a history," Walton said.

"If only you could remember it," Jake retorted.

"If only I remembered – what?" Walton responded, having forgotten already what was being referred to.

Jake let out an annoyed hiss and then said, "You know what, this club has suddenly gotten awfully crowded. Come on, Cadpig, let's go to some place more hospitable."

Jake began to move, expecting Cadpig to follow him. But she stayed where she was. "Actually, I think I'll stay here. I kinda like it."

Jake looked deep into her azure eyes and, through them, into her soul. She could see easily that he was heartbroken by the response. Cadpig still remained firm but perhaps her eye softened for a single second or two, and perhaps Jake saw it. Yet, Jake realized that she meant what she said and he could not change her mind. Looking like a defeated dog, Jake trudged away toward the club entrance where, by happenstance, Maud was fluttering out as well.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Walton remarked as he turned his back on him.

But Cadpig continued to stare at Jake as he left. And Lilly stared at her.

"I know that look," Lilly said quietly so that only she and Cadpig would hear. "That's how I looked at Garth just after he married Kate."

* * *

**Can lost love be found again?**

**Read on.**


	5. The Star

**Another chapter, in which things take a decidely mystical turn.**

* * *

**V. The Star. V.**

* * *

It was after nightfall. Nortonsburg was a small town, far enough away from any major city that a great star-filled sky and the dancing of the constellations across the ecliptic still presented a nightly show free of smog and electricity

It helped that it was a dark and quiet part of town. It was a vacant lot, the result of building projects which had never materialized, and which, while not officially a junkyard, had become a repository for things people did not want any more.

Tonight, that included Cadpig and Lilly.

Walton had taken them here when Cadpig had expressed the need to find a place to stay. He had told them that it was as good a place as any for two strays to spend a night or two. He had then gone home. The reason, he said, for not offering the use of his home was because he lived with his mom and she did not approve of him bringing girls around.

So, here they were. Lilly was laying on her back on a beat-up old mattress, so beat up that nearly everything had been knocked out of it and it was little better than laying against the hard ground. She looked up into the night sky and watched the stars dance around the great axis. Cadpig was nearby, digging through the old junk.

"Cadpig?" Lilly asked innocently.

"Yeah?"

"What do we do now? Now that we're out on our own?"

Cadpig had seemed to find something that interested her and was now trying to pull it out. "Well, I figure we'd stay in Nortonsburg for a few days and see how it suits us. After that, who knows? You have any preferences?"

"No," Lilly said without taking her eyes away from the stars. "I never thought much about it before. I mean, I left Jasper because I was upset, not because I had anything planned out. I don't know where to go or even where there is to go. What do you think we should do?"

Cadpig had now freed her prize. It was an item of clothing, something like a cloak or cape for dogs, that snapped around the neck and provided cover over the forelegs and upper body down to around the waist or so. It was a shade of blue somewhere between Cadpig's deep-blue collar and her bright-azure eyes.

"I just figured we'd go wherever the wind takes us. Just go out and find whatever adventures there are to find. Just live life to the fullest. Wherever we're meant to end up, we'll end up."

"Oh, okay," Lilly said quietly in response, suggesting that she was not totally convinced.

Cadpig admired the cape and, draping it over her shoulders, twirled around and asked, "What do you think?"

Lilly looked at her and smiled. "It suits you."

Cadpig smiled back as she clipped the cape around her neck. "I was thinking that, since I'm a stray now, I should get a new look to go with the new lifestyle."

As she was working on tightening the clip underneath the cape's collar, her paw ran across her own collar. When she felt it, she immediately began working it off. "By the way, I won't need _this_ anymore."

Once the collar was free, Cadpig through it into the pile behind her. With her new cape now snug around her neck, she walked over and laid down on the mattress next to Lilly. Her eyes immediately moved up to the glimmering night sky which Lilly's were already studying.

"Do you think we'll be alright?" Lilly asked.

"Well," Cadpig said, "the Moon is in Aquarius, so that's a good sign. But Jupiter is in Virgo, so that makes things a little difficult…."

"Huh?" Lilly said.

"It's astrology."

"What's astrology?"

"Using the positions of stars and planets to understand your destiny."

"Oh."

Lilly fell into thought. Though Cadpig did not look at her, she sensed that there was something on her mind. Something Cadpig had just said must have triggered something within Lilly. Cadpig was curious to know what that something was.

"You know," Lilly said at last, "back in Jasper, I used to look up at these stars all the time. I felt more at home up there than with my own family."

"I know what you mean," Cadpig responded, her mind running back to nights when she would do the same.

"They're not my family, you know," Lilly said. "Not really. Because I was born up there."

Lilly suddenly realized what she had said. She had just revealed her secret to someone who was practically a stranger. She was certain that Cadpig would now think she was crazy. But Lilly was not crazy.

"Up there? You mean, in space?" Cadpig asked. But the tone in her voice was one of casual conversation. She did not seem surprised at all by this revelation.

Lilly turned to look at her and saw that Cadpig had not broken her gaze from the stars above. She seemed completely calm and relaxed despite what Lilly had just said.

Lilly swiftly turned her head back to the stars, hoping Cadpig had not noticed her turning her head, but knowing that she had. "Uh-huh. I don't know where I came from or why, but I just know it was up there. The night they found me, there was a bright purple aurora over the skies of Canada and then there was a meteor. The meteor shot down from the sky and disintegrated when it hit the stump of a tree. And in its place, they found me. And a white lily, which is how I got my name."

Lilly had spoken the truth, but she did not know how her new friend would respond. Her heart began to beat as she waited for Cadpig's answer. She was afraid that she just might have alienated the only person she had left in this sublunar world.

"I knew there was something special about you," Cadpig said. "Your aura told me as much."

"What's an aura?" Lilly innocently, and quite predictably, asked next.

"An aura is your spiritual energy," Cadpig said. "It's the energy that your soul emits. This energy flows through everything, from me to you and from you to me and everything else in this whole universe. The stronger your soul is, the stronger the aura. Now, someone trained in meditative practice – someone like me – can see that energy being emitted all around your body. And you, Lilly, you have a very strong aura. A strong white aura."

"Oh." Really, what could Lilly say to that? This was once again getting into territory which she knew nothing about and which she felt that she could not begin to understand. So what could she say?

Well there was one thing to say. "No one's ever said I was special before. Not mom, not dad, not Kate, not Garth, not Humphrey, not anybody."

"It isn't something everybody can see," Cadpig responded. "Just like nobody can see what's in me. At least not yet."

"But at least you're normal," Lilly said. "You weren't born from a star. You had a normal mom and dad and ninety-seven normal brothers and sisters. Just like a normal family."

Cadpig smiled at the way Lilly could manage to define having ninety-seven siblings as normal. But Lilly was wrong, wrong utterly. Cadpig was not normal.

"I am not normal," Cadpig said. "I'm just as unique and special as you. I became interested in past lives because – unlike everybody else – I remember them. I remember past years, decades, centuries, millennia, ages. I remember times before this universe, when other universes were being born and were dying. And I remember that something particularly out of the ordinary happened when I was born as well.

"I nearly died, that first night. Maybe I did. Yes, yes I did. I felt myself, even before I knew what it was like to have a mundane body, I felt myself floating above it. I remember looking at the sad faces of my parents and pets and somehow knowing that I was no longer really with them, even though I couldn't know what death was yet. I began to panic as I started to realize that something very bad must have happened. But then, suddenly, I turned my head upwards and saw the sacred moon smiling over me. And then, from the moon above came a blinding light, like a strike of strange lightning, now green and now blue and now white. It came shining down, shining only on me, and I knew then that everything would be okay. More than okay, so much more. I would be so much more. I felt the light lift me up and gently return me to my small, puppy body. Then I opened my eyes for the first time."

"Wow," Lilly said, stunned speechless.

But Cadpig was still involved in the memories of that first silent night. "I thought I saw someone else there or… a reflection of myself. Maybe who I was in a past life. Or maybe who I will be."

Lilly naturally had no idea how to respond to this. Not only did Cadpig not think her story was crazy, but she had an equally unique birth story to match it with. What could she say to that? Well, one thing came to mind.

"Then… what color is your aura?" Lilly asked.

"Green," Cadpig answered solemnly.

They lay there in silence for several minutes, both looking up into the night sky and thinking over all that had been said. But it was not an awkward silence, but rather that rare kind of silence when you do not even need to speak words to another person and yet you know that they already see into your heart of hearts.

Suddenly, Cadpig arose. "I think I'll go meditate," she said.

"Okay," Lilly said, glancing at her briefly as she left and then turning her eyes back to the stars in the firmament.

Once Cadpig was gone, Lilly thought over everything that had been said and done on this first full day of the rest of her life. She smiled warmly as she thought of the friends she had made and the things Cadpig had told her. She forced any thoughts of Garth and kin out of her mind. Lilly's lavender eyes fluttered and closed as she felt sleep coming over her. As she gently let herself be carried away, she realized that something had happened to her that a mere twenty-four hours before would have seemed impossible. Lilly was happy.

But then, as she was about to fall asleep for the night, Lilly felt something cold and sharp pressed against her neck. She sensed a presence near her, one that was not warm and comforting like Cadpig but harsh and menacing like a creature out of a nightmare. She heard a sinister voice whisper, "Make a sound and I'll turn that pretty white fur of yours all red."

* * *

Cadpig had felt the overwhelming urge to meditate just as she did whenever she reflected on her birth. Lilly had brought the subject up, but could not understand just what it meant to Cadpig, or to herself. Cadpig knew that, compared to herself, Lilly was still relatively unawakened. But Lilly would have to find the course on her own, Cadpig knew, just as she had.

Cadpig found a quiet space at the end of the lot to meditate in. She settled herself down and closed her eyes as she visualized the energy centers in her body, the chakras, and imagined that she was moving energy between them as necessary. She began to relax and feel blissful as she concentrated on this spiritual exercise.

However, a vision soon disturbed her third-eye sight. She saw clearly Lilly, or rather, Lilly's lavender eyes surrounded by a glow of white. Cadpig was used to pertinent visions affecting her as such, but she did not like this one. It troubled her. There was something in Lilly's eyes, fear, terror, shock, despair.

Those feeling became so intense, the fear in Lilly's eyes so intense, that Cadpig was forced to open her own. Without hesitating, she lifted herself up and ran back toward where she and Lilly had set up their temporary home.

* * *

Lilly shivered as she felt the dagger pressed against her neck. She wanted to scream or cry or make some noise to let out the terror she felt, but she could do nothing of the sort. Her assailant had grabbed her snout and was holding it shut. All she could do as he pulled her backward was try to look at his face. But when her eyes turned that way, all she could see was shadowed darkness under a blue hood.

"Now be a good little girl and come along," he hissed, "and we won't have any accidents involving this blade getting better acquainted with your throat."

Lilly did not know what she could do. She had to comply. She had no idea who this was or why he was doing this to her, but she feared the worst. She did not even know what the worst could be, but she feared it with her whole being.

The stranger, though canine, purred like a cat in pleasure as she let him lead her toward the fence which separated this lot from the city outside, to the spot where there was the opening that she and Cadpig had entered through earlier. Lilly felt his breath on her face and hated the feeling. She shuttered at the thought of what he had in store for her. But there was no way out now.

"Let her go!"

_Cadpig!_ It was Cadpig! Lilly saw her standing opposite them, her new cape billowing around her shoulders as she looked resolute and unwavering. She looked as Lilly had never seen her look before; calm, determined, and absolutely unwilling to back down.

The stranger chuckled at the new arrival. And he pushed the dagger even closer into Lilly's throat, so close that she could almost feel it cutting into the skin.

"Ah, two for the price of one," he said. "This day just keeps getting better! Now, come along peacefully with me, or I'll spill your friend here's blood all over the place."

Lilly shivered even more at the renewed threat.

"Let her go," Cadpig said again, her azure eyes fixed in a steely gaze.

Another chuckle from the assailant. "Perhaps you need a demonstration, then. So be it!"

Raising the dagger from Lilly's neck, he brought to her face with a plan to slash a deep scar through her pretty eye and down to her jaw. Lilly braced for the worst as the dagger approached her forehead. She closed her eyes so as not to see what happened next.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes. The dagger was still pointed at her face but had not moved. Strangely, this did not seem to be due to any mercy on the attacker's part; rather he seemed to be struggling with his own foreleg to force the blade into Lilly's delicate skin. But the appendage just would not move.

"How many times do I have to say…. _Let… her… go!_"

No sooner were these words of Cadpig's out that the limb now moved of its own accord, pulling the dagger away from Lilly's face and throwing it to the ground. And then the paw which had been holding Lilly's snout so tightly suddenly dropped away, as did the limb it was attached to. She was free.

Lilly immediately ran toward Cadpig and latched onto her, burying her eyes in the Dalmatian's shoulder. Cadpig put a foreleg around her, but did not break her gaze from the hooded intruder. Despite being unable to see his eyes, Cadpig knew he could not break his gaze from her.

"Now," Cadpig said, "why don't you tell us just what you were planning to do to Lilly and me? And why don't you also explain why you chose to do it under such a hideous fashion statement?"

"Big words, for someone dressed like yourself," the mysterious intruder said. He was rewarded for his wit by being punched in the gut by his own paw.

He fell to his knees.

"Let's try again, shall we?" Cadpig said, her voice sweet but strangely cold. "Who are you and what were you just trying to pu– "

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion reverberated from somewhere nearby. Cadpig and Lilly both instinctively looked toward where the sound had emanated from. They saw nothing, but when they turned back, the stranger was making a break for it. He had already cleared the fence and was running through the street.

"We have to stop him!" Lilly cried.

"I… I can't," Cadpig responded. "Not anymore."

And so he got away. When they were certain he had gone, Lilly once more buried her head in Cadpig's shoulder and began to cry. "I was… so scared… about what… he… was… g-g-going to do to me!" she whimpered between sobs.

"It's alright now, Lilly," Cadpig said. "It doesn't matter what he was going to do, because he didn't get to do it. You're alright now, you're safe. It's okay, there's no need to cry. Come on, let's dry those tears and put on one of those winning smiles of yours. I mean, really, if we have another scene like this, this is going to turn into a hurt/comfort fic. And do you really want that?"

Lilly lifted her tear-stained eyes from Cadpig's shoulder. "Please, Cadpig, I've been scared enough for one night."

Lilly was calm now. Cadpig let her go and she fell back down onto the mattress. Meanwhile, Cadpig had noticed that the dagger was still on the ground. She walked over to examine it.

"How… how did you do that?" Lilly asked once she felt up to it. "I… I… know you did that. How?"

Cadpig picked up the dagger and began to look it up and down. "You're just lucky I was still in a strongly-attuned state of mind from meditating. Until that explosion broke my concentration and pulled me out of it, that is."

"But how?" Lilly said, doing her best to keep herself together. "I don't understand how you could do something like that."

Cadpig sighed. "I told you, Lilly. Our souls emit energy and our minds are like superconductors managing the transfer of energy between ourselves and others. Sometimes they release a little more, sometimes a little less. It's all a trick of being able to channel enough energy into another person to overload their superconductor and gain control yourself. It's a simple process, really, once you know what you're doing."

Lilly looked up at her, her gaze now the one that was fixed and unmoving. "Can you teach me how to do it?" she asked, her voice more determined and serious than Cadpig had suspected it could be.

Cadpig swiftly turned her eyes to Lilly. She had been stunned by Lilly's question and the force with which it was expressed. "No, Lilly, I can't teach you that. Nobody can because it is not something that can be taught. It is a consequence of expanding your consciousness, not an end in itself."

But Lilly was persistent. "Then teach me how to do that. Teach me how to expand my consciousness."

"Lilly, you're not listening," Cadpig responded, her voice now filled with strong concern. "This isn't something you can do because you want cool powers. This way is great, but it's also dangerous. If you don't follow it with a pure heart, it will destroy you. That is not a maybe; if you are doing it for the wrong reasons, _it will destroy you_. This path leads to either enlightenment or death. There is no in-between. You have to understand that."

Lilly fell silent. She did not have a way to respond. But Cadpig did not like the way Lilly's eyes remained absolutely fixed on her. To try and avoid them, she turned her attention back to the dagger. It was an interesting specimen; in some ways, it seemed more of a work of art than a weapon. The sharp, thin blade was adorned with mysterious runes and symbols, while the hilt was colored the same rich shade of royal-blue as the assailant's cloak. But most interesting of all, there were a number of silver moons – one along the grip, another forming the pommel, and a third forming the cross-guard.

"Well, it's rather beautiful, in a completely creepy sort of way," Cadpig remarked to herself, though Lilly heard.

A moment later she added. "I don't think it's safe here anymore. We should go before any other mentally-unbalanced fashion disasters decide to come after us."

"Go? Go where?" Lilly asked. "We don't know any place where we could go!"

Cadpig looked up with a certain spark in her eyes. "There is one place."

* * *

The hooded figure walked slowly downward. He had left the normal world behind, for as he descended, all things became blue and silver. Upon the walls around him were works in bronze telling of long-forgotten events and conveying long-forgotten meanings. The way was narrow, the stairs difficult. But this individual had been down here so often that navigating it was second nature to him. Even the strange glow that seemed to permeate the narrow space barely reached his notice.

He came to the magnificent gilded double doors which opened quickly of their own accord as soon as he had approached them. They revealed a great room, whose true length could not be determined for it was edged with darkness. But from the center emitted a blue light which filled the room with an eerie, ethereal light. Inside the room were many things mysterious to outsiders; books in unknown tongues, statues to unknown gods, and many other things best left unknown.

In the center of the room sat another figure, also wearing a royal-blue cloak and hood. But this one's cloak and hood were lined with ermine and from his neck hung a large silver moon. He made such a figure and gave off such an air of authority that he alone of all that was here gave the new arrival pause.

The arrival entered. He removed his hood respectfully, revealing a young face that was not unlike that of a deerhound, but a little smaller and much greyer. He approached the other.

"Ah, Brother_ Tabernae Fures Erunt Accusati_. You have not arrived with your charges, I see," said this other in a stern, commanding voice.

"I tried, father, I really did," he said. "I had the white wolf in my grasp but then… my dagger…."

The other figure now pulled down his hood to reveal a wolf-dog of incredible old age. He was so old that his natural brown fur had turned almost completely silver-white. But in his silver-blue eyes was a youthful vigor as well as a youthful rage. He was not one to be trifled with.

"You lost your dagger? The symbol of our order, the one thing we charge you to guard with your very life if necessary, and you have lost it? While also failing to bring back one of our charges, might I add! The mistress shall not be pleased with you, Roland. She shall not be pleased at all."

'But please, father," Roland pleaded, "it was not my fault. The white dog, she is more advanced in her powers than we had suspected. She was able to best me with the thought!"

The white wolf-dog now put his paws together as he considered this. "Yes, I see why that may have posed an unexpected difficulty…."

"Then what shall we do, father, if we cannot capture them?"

"I said unexpected, I did not say insurmountable," the white wolf-dog snapped. But after this, he was completely calm, "It may even prove most amusing in the long-run. But I tell you this, your failure is of no consequence in our grand plan. The Ancient and Mystical Order of the Silver Moon shall accomplish its ends yet. The mistress wants the lotus and the lily, and nothing shall stop her from having them!"

* * *

**What is the Order of the Silver Moon? And why do they want Cadpig and Lilly?**

**Read on.**


	6. The Chariot

**Things are getting serious for our heroines. **

**Where can they turn for safety so deep in unknown territory?**

* * *

**VI. The Chariot. VI.**

* * *

Jake had just been sitting down to do a puzzle in the small apartment he now called his own when he heard a noise outside. It was a rapping on the loose board in the wall that he used to enter and exit.

Jake walked over and pushed the board aside. He immediately saw a certain lavender-eyed white wolf, standing there and shivering. "Lilly?" he asked in confusion.

Then he noticed his old girlfriend behind her. "Cadpig? I thought you were still mad at me."

He dodged quickly as a dagger whizzed past his ear and embedded itself in the wall opposite.

"You are still mad at me," he responded. "I just never knew weapons were your style."

Cadpig smiled devilishly as she pushed her way in. "They aren't. But if I was mad enough to use them, I wouldn't have missed."

Lilly followed her. Jake could tell that the wolf was almost on the point of tears. Cadpig led Lilly to the homiest spot in the room, a stack of papers in front of the puzzle, a 100-piece puzzle of a motorcycle not even half-finished, and sat her down.

Then she walked over to the wall and pulled out the dagger. She handed it to Jake. He took it, not sure why, but mostly likely to keep her from using it for a more lethal purpose. He was not wholly convinced that her miss was intentional.

"Some wacko just attacked us with that!" Cadpig barked accusatorily.

Jake looked up at her, concern in his eyes. "You were attacked? Cadpig, are you…."

"Save me the pity party. Of course, I'm alright. Lilly's the one who nearly had her face made into Thanksgiving dinner."

Jake looked over to where Lilly sat. "She did! Is she alright?"

"I'm… I'm fine," Lilly answered, only briefly looking up. Jake now noticed something about her; her bangs had fallen over her left eye. Somehow, she did not seem so threatening any more.

"Which may be more than I can say for the blue-hooded maniac who threatened her with this!" Cadpig said, tapping the dagger. "I thought maybe you'd have some idea about what this is."

Jake looked it over. "Ah, yes. The steel suggests that it's from the Indian subcontinent. Probably 16th Century, I should think. They used to give daggers like these out to the soldiers of the Mughal Empire when they were sent off to war."

"Really?" Cadpig asked.

"I have no idea," Jake answered. "I don't know anything about daggers! Why are you even asking me in the first place?'

"I don't know; you live in this town and you're the only person who knows me, so I thought maybe you'd be involved somehow!"

Jake shook his head. "Hold on! Let's get a few things straight. I've only been in this town three weeks. Not enough time to learn about any sort of hooded, dagger-wielding crazies and where to find them!"

"And yet, Walton seemed to be awfully familiar with you."

"Walton? Oh, yeah, him. Buffoon. You can't go by anything Walton says. I'll tell you that right now, Cadpig, you can't trust him!"

Cadpig smiled another devious smile. She batted her eye-lashes as she said this. "And what caused you and him to become such close… enemies?"

Jake shook his head. "Walton gets easily offended. He didn't like some things I said and did that were really none of his business."

"That's one-sided logic!" Cadpig shot back, her smile widening.

Before this moment could go any farther, Lilly sneezed and shivered some more. Cadpig immediately turned to check on her. "Jake, don't just stand there! Find her a blanket or something."

"There's one right behind her."

Lilly turned to get it herself, but Cadpig quickly ran over and placed it on Lilly's shoulders for her.

"Thanks," Lilly said quietly.

"Don't mention it," Cadpig responded gently.

As Cadpig walked back toward Jake, she asked, "Anything else you need? Maybe something to eat? You haven't eaten in hours."

"Cadpig!" Jake said. "You can't just be coming into my home and demanding I give your friends any food off my back!"

"Shut it!" Cadpig said, trying to speak low enough that Lilly would not hear but knowing that Lilly had heard anyway.

"A caribou liver would be nice if you've got it," Lilly said with a polite smile, trying to thank Jake with her eyes.

"I'll go check," Jake said. "Cadpig, can I speak to you in the kitchen?"

Cadpig followed Jake into the kitchen area, which was just a small alcove beside the main room. This was obviously a rather nice, if small, apartment, but one that clearly seen no human tenant reside there for a while.

Jake walked over to a small refrigerator. He opened it to reveal darkness; it was unplugged and there was no food at all to be found within. Without looking, he called out, "Looks like we're fresh out of caribou livers, sorry!"

"Thanks anyway!" Lilly called back from the other room.

Jake had, this whole time, not taken his eyes off of Cadpig. She herself was busy looking through some things he had placed in here.

"Cadpig, that's personal! Don't touch any of that!" Jake said.

"There was a time when you were fine with me going through your personal stuff," Cadpig said without stopping.

Jake sighed. "Cadpig, why did you have to bring that friend of yours here? To my home, of all places! And how did you even find me?"

"Please. I may not have Rolly's nose but I know your scent well-enough that I can pick it up a mile off!"

"Still, I don't like that _she's_ here! She just asked me for a caribou liver, as though it's perfectly normal to keep caribou livers in the refrigerator! How weird is that?"

Cadpig now looked at Jake, her eyes saying, 'I can't believe we're having this conversation again.' "Jake, she's a wolf, a wolf who until today had spent her whole life in the wild. She only knows about eating caribou! Caribou livers for her are like microwaved ramen noodles for us! They are her normal."

"Her normal is my strange," Jake answered. "I don't like it. A predator's a predator, I always say. Are you sure she didn't organize the attack so that she could make a nice meal out of you?"

Cadpig chuckled. "So, instead of tearing me to pieces with her claws and fangs, she hired someone else and had _herself_ attacked with a dagger? Seems like a long way to go for a bite to eat!"

"Canadians don't think like you and me," Jake said. "It might be perfectly logical in her frozen, maple-syrup-filled world."

"Trust me," Cadpig said, "I wouldn't hang out with a girlfriend who does assassinations and hits. She only does turtles."

"Well, there's a statement with a lot of uncomfortable ambiguity," Jake said. "Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask you…."

_"Yes?"_ Cadpig said, already suspicious of what he was about to say.

Jake smiled slightly as he said the next thing. "When you say 'girlfriend,' do you mean that you and her are… you know…." He widened and narrowed his eyes slightly to emphasize the last part.

His answer came as something between an offended slap and a powerful haymaker.

"Okay, okay, I was just asking!" Jake said as he held his paw to his face. "I was just worried that I might have messed something up when I left."

"Or maybe your overinflated macho ego wanted to believe that you did!" Cadpig retorted angrily.

"Cadpig, really, I–"

"No, this conversation is closed!" Cadpig said, turning to leave. But then she noticed something.

She tugged at what appeared to be a photograph hidden under some random papers. She pulled it loose and saw that it was of a familiar-looking Irish Setter.

"Maud?" Cadpig yelped. "You've got a picture from Maud?"

Jake took the picture from her hand. "What if I do? It's not like you and me are an item any more. So why shouldn't I be keeping my options open?"

Cadpig slapped her paw against her head. "That's it! The explosion we heard! It must have been Maud again! And here Walton said he was going to keep her from doing anything like that! I hope nobody was injured."

Jake shook his head. "I doubt it. Maud's big thing was a breakout at the pound tonight. So, if she succeeded, it's more cause for celebration than alarm."

"Aha! So you do know what's going on here!"

"Yes…. I mean, no…. I mean, everybody knows about Maud. But sinister conspiracies, I don't know anything about that!"

Cadpig studied him thoroughly, her one eye narrowed in thought. Eventually, she decided she could trust him. This was Jake, after all, and she had a feeling he would never put her in harm's way, no matter what he was involved in.

"Fine," she said at last. "But Lilly and I are staying here for the next few days."

This announced, she turned and walked out of the alcove.

"What?" Jake said. "You can't just do that! What if I have company? And her, in my home? I don't think so!"

"Jake says we can stay!" Cadpig announced to Lilly as she returned to the main room.

"Great," Lilly said, giving Jake a smile of gratitude.

"Now, look, I didn't say – My puzzle!" Jake shouted, walking over to where Lilly and the puzzle sat. "What on earth did you do to my puzzle?"

Lilly looked down in shame; she knew she had accidentally done something wrong. Jake and Cadpig rushed over and looked down at the puzzle. The 100-piece puzzle, barely even started when the two girls had arrived, now lay there, perfectly completed.

"Your pretty picture, it was all broken up," Lilly said innocently. "So I thought I'd try to fix it for you. I was lucky that it broke into pieces that were so easy to fit back together. I did have some trouble because some of the pieces looked like they got chewed or something, but I got them all to fit back into their places."

Cadpig smiled knowingly at Jake. But Jake was none-too-pleased.

"It's a puzzle! It's supposed to be broken up! I didn't need it to be fixed!" Jake snapped.

Lilly turned her eyes away. "I'm sorry. I thought it would make you happy."

Cadpig glared at Jake. "You can just break it up and put it back together again!"

"It's not the same," Jake responded. "Once it's been put together once, it's not the same when you do it a second time!"

"I… just… wanted… to… help…." Lilly choked out.

Jake was about to berate Lilly more when Cadpig stopped him in his tracks. "Leave her alone, Jake!" she barked, with enough force that Jake felt too frightened to disobey.

Lilly laughed a little. "You remind me of my mom sometimes, Cadpig," she said.

Cadpig smiled. "I'm sure I'd enjoy meeting her. She must be a peaceful and enlightened person."

"Something like that," Lilly answered, with traces of sarcasm.

Jake put out his paw to try and motion Cadpig to be calm. "Okay, okay, no more fuss about the picture. How about if I told her she did a good job, would that square everything? You did a good job, Lilly."

"Thanks," Lilly said.

"Now, are we square?"

"As square as a square peg in a round hole," Cadpig answered testily.

"Well, what else could you want?" Jake said. As Cadpig smiled at him he knew the answer. "Fine, fine. You can stay here. Both of you."

* * *

**It is said that no good deed goes unpunished. **

**Will Jake find this to be true with his new houseguests? **

**And can he protect them from their enemies?**

**Read on.**


	7. Justice

**Welcome back, everyone, to another installment of "A Confluence of Hearts." **

**To those of you who worried that the story was dead, never fear. I have several other stories that I have to keep up with and that may keep me from always updating this one in a timely manner. But it is never far from my thoughts and I continue to work on it even when it seems like I'm not.**

**But thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed. Please, read on and enjoy this next chapter.**

* * *

**VII. Justice. VII.**

* * *

It was morning. Jake rolled over to keep his face out of the morning sun, which managed to find its way through a crack in the apartment's wall – for otherwise there were no doors – and fall directly upon his sleeping face. He turned over and his paw came upon the shoulder of another canine, whose soft fur felt much like silk or velvet. He rubbed his paw gently over her shoulder and then her back as a smile appeared on his face.

"Oh, Cadpig, you feel so sweet and fluffy in the mornings," he said dreamily.

Then he heard the sound above him of someone clearing her throat. Jake opened his eyes to see Cadpig standing directly over him. He then turned to see that his paw was currently running down Lilly's back.

"Yah!" he shouted as he jumped away. "Cadpig, I thought that was you! She had the perfect opportunity to bite my paw off right there!"

"Maybe if you kept your paws to yourself for a change, you wouldn't have to worry," Cadpig said. "I was sitting over there and meditating when I saw you here getting all touchy-feely with Lilly."

"Hey, hey, hey," Jake said, trying to defend himself. "I didn't mean it! I thought she was you!"

Cadpig cocked on eyebrow. "And why should that matter?"

Jake smiled sheepishly. "Well… um… I thought if we were going to be… um, roommates, that you and me… um… that it could be just like old times and we could… you know…."

Cadpig shook her head in disgust. "It is not like old times! So, you just keep your paws away from me and definitely keep them away from her! She's already got a broken heart and does not need any of that!"

"Okay, okay, you made your point," Jake said. "I forgot how grumpy you can get in the mornings."

"What?" Cadpig barked.

"Okay, that didn't come out right," Jake said. "You know what, why don't I go see if there's anything to eat before I dig myself a bigger grave?"

"It might be nice," Cadpig said with clear annoyance. "Not that it'll help you live longer."

As they were speaking, Lilly's eyes fluttered open. She had been awoken by the fighting and was now slowly lifting herself out of sleep. "Morning, guys," she said.

"Wah!" Jake jumped when she said it. He ran from room and into the kitchen as though he expected Lilly to make him her morning breakfast.

Lilly looked to Cadpig, wondering what she had done wrong this time.

"Don't worry about it," Cadpig said. "He's just like that in the mornings sometimes."

"I don't think he likes me," Lilly said sadly, as she looked down to the ground.

Cadpig smiled. "Nonsense! Jake is just… difficult. Very, very obtusely difficult. That's all it is."

"Oh," Lilly said, not sounding convinced.

Suddenly, all three canines perked their ears up. There was somebody outside. Cadpig and Lilly turned their faces toward the loose wall-board. Jake came out of the kitchen, sans food.

"I say, is anybody in there?" came the voice outside. Everybody immediately recognized it as belonging to Walton.

Cadpig was about to respond when Jake stepped in front of her. "Let me handle this," he said.

Cadpig rolled her eyes, but Jake was already approaching the wall-board. So she let him go. She thought it might be to her advantage to let him sort things out for her. It might at least give her a better idea of how Jake and Walton acted around each other.

Jake moved the board just enough to get himself outside. There, he met Walton in the open air.

"My, my, I was expecting two fair ladies," Walton said. "Not a drunken, vainglorious lout!"

"What do you want, Walton?" Jake asked in disgust.

"I just went to check on Cadpig and Lollie at the abandoned lot, where I left them last night," Walton answered. "They weren't there, but I did find this!"

He revealed that he was holding onto Cadpig's collar. He lifted it upward and almost seemed to wave it in Jake face, as if to emphasize his hold over it.

"I was worried that something may have happened to them," Walton said. "So I went looking. I picked up their scents easily enough and so I came here."

Jake quickly grasped the collar and pulled it away in evident embarrassment. He treated it as something which he did not want anyone but himself to possess.

"Well, no need to worry," Jake said quickly. "They're in here with me. So you can just turn around and go back to wherever it is you crawl out of in the mornings. Because both Cadpig and Lilly are here."

"My word, old man," Walton said. "You haven't abducted them, have you? There's a law against kidnapping and holding someone against their will, you know. And do you really need two of them. One should suffice, I should think."

"I did not abduct them!" Jake said. "They came of their own free will!"

"That's what all abductors say," Walton said.

"I didn't abduct them!" Jake shouted. "I can't believe I'm even explaining this to you!"

Meanwhile, inside the room, Lilly had turned on an old television set. As it so happened, cartoons were on and Lilly sat herself down, transfixed by the spectacle. Cadpig was pretending to meditate, but in reality was trying to listen to the conversation outside. However, the walls were surprisingly insolated, so that even with her impeccable hearing, she could not grasp much of what was being said.

"Cadpig?" Lilly asked suddenly.

"Mh-hmm," Cadpig responded, still more focused on what was being said outside.

"Do you still love Jake?"

A look of pure panic crossed Cadpig's face. She had been taken completely by surprise by the question. Did she still love Jake? It was a good question and one she didn't know how to answer. Was there an answer? Could there ever be?

Lilly had asked so innocently, in that way she always did. Now, she sat there in front of Cadpig with those innocent eyes and with her head tilted slightly. She did not even seem to realize the discomfort she was causing her friend. But she also clearly would not back down. Cadpig was beginning to wonder if maybe all this naīvety was an act after all.

"What?" Cadpig said, mentally trying to put together something to say. "No, of course…. Well, not rea–…. Maybe a lit–…. Why do you ask?"

"Because he still loves you," Lilly answered, as though she still did not grasp what she was doing.

Cadpig let out a fake laugh. "Me? Love me? No, he doesn't! Not anymore. He's got a new girl now. Madge or whatever her name is. He had her picture in a pile over there."

"But just in a pile," Lilly said, suddenly sounding much less innocent. "Not in any special place. Not like that one."

Lilly pointed behind her to a little spot in the corner where Jake had placed a small crate. It was just large enough for him to use as a table or a nightstand. On top of this crate was a picture, held securely in a gilt frame. Cadpig's jaw dropped once she realized the picture was of her.

Lilly smiled furtively to see this reaction. She had accomplished what she wanted to. Her work done, she sat back down in front of the TV set and once more became lost in the world of animation.

Cadpig now walked over and absent-mindedly changed the channel. "I wonder if _Veterinary Hospital_ is on," she said. The truth was that, even though _Veterinary Hospital_ might have been her favorite show, she did not particularly care right now if it was on or not. She just wanted to change the subject.

As it so happened, _Veterinary Hospital_ was, in fact, on. But Cadpig did not even seem to notice. Something had taken hold of her, something crazed and wild. And something clicked in her mind. Without another word, she walked over to the wall and pushed open the board.

Lilly quickly changed the channel back to the cartoons.

She stepped out into the open air and beside Jake, who was still busy trying to justify himself to Walton.

Walton had just said, "Now, come on. Just let me talk to them and see for myself that they're alright. You can be a good sport about that, can't you?"

Jake had growled and said. "Look, it's none of your business! Just get lost, you sorry excuse for a poet!"

"Now, now, Jake," Cadpig said as she stepped beside him, much to his surprise. "There's no need for name-calling. Hello, Walton."

Walton looked as surprised as Jake to see her. "Um, hello, Cadpig. It's nice to see you here. I was worried because you were–"

"Attacked last night? Yes I was."

"Attacked? By _him_?" Walton asked, pointing to Jake.

"Why am I always the one who gets accused in these situations?" Jake asked indignantly.

Cadpig chuckled. "No, not by him. It was by some hooded creep. He wore this large blue cloak and had this dagger. Nearly carved up poor Lilly. She's taking things extremely well, though."

Walton suddenly seemed to fidget. "A… a person in a blue cloak, you say? Wow, that's something, alright. I don't even know who would ever do a thing… a thing like that. Certainly not someone… someone like me. That's for certain."

Cadpig smiled deviously. "That's an awfully specific denial!"

Walton let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a yelp. "Is it? I wouldn't know. I mean, that's funny. And odd. Funny and odd. I must say."

He never did say what he must say. Instead he fell silent.

But then, within a few instants, the fire returned to his eyes. "Wait a second, where's Lollie?" he asked.

"Oh, her?" Cadpig asked.

She then kicked open the wall-board with her back paw to reveal the room, where Lilly sat intently in front of the TV set, her eyes still tracing the magic lines of the cartoons.

"What are you doing to the poor girl?" Walton said. "Making her watch those abominable things. That's torture if I ever saw it!"

"You're well-acquainted with torture?" Jake asked skeptically.

"Well, no…."

"Boys, boys," Cadpig said. "Let's stop fighting. We're all friends here, right? _Right?_"

Jake and Walton both grunted.

"There, was that so hard? Now, is there anything else you wished to talk to us about, Walton?"

Walton looked from her to Jake and back again in evident embarrassment. "Well, no, I mean, yes. I was thinking, since you and Lollie haven't been abducted after all, why don't you join me for a nice day about town?"

Cadpig smiled. "Jake and I would love to. And I'm sure Lilly would be happy to come as well."

"Jake?" Walton said in alarm.

"Me?" Jake said in equal alarm.

Cadpig nodded. "Why would we ever go anywhere without you, Jake?"

Jake smiled sheepishly, happy to be included in Cadpig's plans again but unhappy to be stuck with the aspiring poet for the day. "Then I guess I'm going too. Eh, Walton?"

"I guess so," Walton answered sullenly.

"Great!" Cadpig smiled as she prepared to get Lilly. But then Jake tapped her on the shoulder.

Cadpig turned to see him holding her collar in front of her face.

"And how did this get left in the lot?" Jake asked, almost like a parent asking questions of a naughty child.

Cadpig took it and shrugged. "_Well_, it's not really something I need anymore, is it?"

Jake shook his head. "Cadpig, I really don't think you should just leave that lying around. It could fall into some unsavory hands. Like that loser who attacked you last night!"

"He is not a loser!" Walton proclaimed. Then, realizing what he had done, he added, "Not that I would know, or anything. I don't know anything about any hooded dagger-wielding types."

"Again, awfully specific denial," Cadpig said before turning back to Jake. "But really, Jake, it's my collar and I can do with it whatever I please. But you must _really care_ to be so worried about me!"

Jake smiled nervously. "Of course I care, Cadpig! I just wasn't sure if you cared about me!"

Cadpig winked at him. "Oh, Jake, I've always cared about you!"

* * *

Now the four were walking through town. Once Lilly had been convinced to tear herself away from the magic of television, they had set out. It was a strange group, with Jake trying to stay near Cadpig and Lilly trying to fall to the back. None of them were really sure what to do now. Well, none of them but Cadpig, who was trying to get Jake and Walton to make conversation.

"So, Walton, written any good poems today?" she asked.

Walton sighed. "Not today, I'm afraid. The muse is blocked, it seems."

"Your muse is always blocked," Jake said contemptuously.

"Now, Jake, don't make fun of Walton's problems," Cadpig said. "He can't help it if he's sometimes _poetically-challenged_."

"I'll try to resist the temptation," Jake responded.

"Maybe you could recite some to us," Cadpig continued. "Maybe that would solve your writer's block."

"Cadpig, I don't think that's really a good idea," Jake said.

"Nonsense," Walton said, in order to one-up Jake. "I'd love to!" But then he realized what he had just agreed to and suddenly seemed all the less keen. "But not right now…. You see, I don't have my notebook with me. That's where all the poems are!"

"Can't you recite them from memory?" Jake taunted.

"Oh well," Cadpig said, trying to salvage the situation. "Maybe another time. I'm sure you won't forget next time we meet."

"Of course I won't forget," Walton said. "Forget what?"

Jake and Cadpig both sighed at Walton's shoddy memory.

They continued onward, through the town, seeing the various sights. Not that there were many sights to see, but they saw what they could. At one point, as Jake and Walton had gotten into another argument about some trivial topic, Cadpig fell behind to talk to Lilly.

"Hey, Lilly, how's it going?" she asked.

Lilly smiled. "Fine. I'm just trying to digest everything. It was quite a night we had last night, you know!"

Cadpig nodded in agreement. "Sure was. Getting attacked, then stopping the attack. Definitely not your average vacation!"

"I still want to learn how to do that," Lilly said gently.

Cadpig shook her head, her previous tone of joy having suddenly disappeared. "Lilly, I told you, this stuff is dangerous! It's not something you do for fun!"

And a moment, she added, "Well, it is fun, but you have to be careful!"

"You could really hurt someone with this stuff, huh?" Lilly said.

Cadpig nodded. "Yeah, you could."

"Could you, um, _kill them_?"

Cadpig was silent for a moment. When she answered, her voice was grave. "Someone who has fully mastered the energy flow can gain such control of another person's body that they could will that person's heart to simply stop beating. They could cause the lungs to refuse to draw in air or keep the blood from flowing. Yes, Lilly, this stuff can kill."

Lilly's eyes had grown wide. "Does this mean… that you could have killed that guy last night?"

Cadpig smiled wistfully. "Oh, no, I'm not advanced enough in this to have done that. I've still got some ways to go yet. But there's an old story of a Buddhist monk who was about to be executed by the Emperor of Tibet. However, when the monk was brought before the Emperor, he uttered a curse and disappeared. The Emperor's heart immediately stopped and never beat again."*****

As Cadpig finished speaking, she looked to Lilly, whose eyes had grown quite wide again. She knew her message had gotten through.

"But I still want to learn," Lilly said, her voice now soft and quiet – more so than usual. "Not because of the powers. That has nothing to do with it. But I want to be a person like you. I want to be able to stand up in the world and not always cower around the dark edges. I want to be just like you!"

Cadpig was silent for a moment more before answering again. "I understand. If that's what you want, then I'll teach you."

Lilly's tail started to wag wildly. "Really?"

"Uh-huh," Cadpig answered sweetly. "But you have to understand the risks involved. I don't want you to get hurt. This is powerful stuff, but you have to keep your heart pure. Do you understand?"

Lilly nodded. "Don't worry about me. I'll be able to do that just fine."

"Very good," Cadpig said, "but if you'll excuse me, those two look like they're about to get into more trouble. Males, eh?"

Lilly chuckled as Cadpig moved forward to break up the disturbance occurring between Jake and Walton.

"So, what are you boys fighting over now?" she asked in her pleasant way, fully intended to put off any sense that she had ulterior motives.

"This brute was just criticizing me and my friends, yet again," Walton said. "I was just innocently relating how Russell is trying to come up with a new _nom de plume_ when he just starts attacking me out of the blue!"

"Look, all I said was that '!' does not constitute an actual pen-name!" Jake shot back. "Is free speech suddenly against the law now?"

"Well, the way I see it," Cadpig said, "both of you are coming from good places. Walton is right that his friend should be allowed self-expression in whatever form that takes, but Jake is right that that type of a name is completely bonkers. So, you see, you both are right in a certain respect."

Jake and Walton both wanted to protest this, but neither of them could find the way. Whether it was the argument or the sheer force of Cadpig's personality, they both had been put in their places.

As it was, they were now approaching _The Bohemian Bloodhound_, the only location Walton ever seemed capable of finding in his scattered mind. Jake did not relish the thought of hobnobbing with Walton's friends, and so fell back beside Lilly.

He did not relish the thought of being anywhere near Lilly, but he saw her as the lesser of the two evils. And because he still saw her as a vicious, dog-eating fiend – albeit a very cute and sensitive one – that was saying something.

But he was still completely surprised when Lilly quietly asked, "Jake?"

A shiver went down Jake's spine. He did not know how to respond. So he finally just gave an equally-quiet, "Yeah?"

"Do you still love Cadpig?" Lilly asked innocently.

Jake was, nevertheless, offended by the question. Who was this wolf, this Canadian, to ask about his personal life?

"I don't think that's any of your business," he answered gruffly.

"Oh," Lilly said. And her head drooped down, to the point where her bangs once again fell in her left eye.

Jake watched her. Even though he was putting up every effort to neither like nor trust Lilly, he could not help but feel pity for how she handled herself now. He also could not help noticing that she was rather attractive in her own way.

"Yeah, I guess I do…" he said at last.

"No, of course I do! I could never love anybody else!" Jake added quickly, turning his eyes from Lilly. Thus he missed when she picked up her own eyes to meet him.

"Then why did you leave her?" she asked. "Why would anyone who loves anyone else leave them?"

"What, you've never been loved and left?" Jake said as he turned back toward her. "I thought you'd experienced heartbreak, too!"

Lilly sighed and closed her eyes. "I did. But he didn't really love me. If he did, he wouldn't have left me. He wouldn't have left me for my sister."

"Ooh, that's harsh," Jake said. "But you should see it from his perspective. I mean, what did he do, really? Give her a kiss, a peck on the cheek?"

"He married her," Lilly answered, turning away as though she was somehow at fault for this.

Jake looked down to the ground in shock. "Oh… that's something. That's definitely some sort of thing."

"Yeah, it is," Lilly said, rolling her head in frustration.

Jake grinned slightly. "That certainly makes what I did seem much more innocent. I only kissed another girl."

Lilly turned her eyes back in shock of her own. "You_ kissed_ another girl? Was it her sister?"

"Oh, you assume that just because she has fifty-six or so of them, that it must have been one, right?" Jake responded. "Well, I'll have you know that there were other girls available in Grutely beside that one family!"

Then he noticed that Lilly had taken a step or two away from him. She had obviously not liked his sudden outburst. Now he felt like a complete jerk, even though he reminded himself that it was a wolf he was talking to. And a Canadian. It was not like they had feelings, Jake thought.

"You shouldn't have done that," Lilly said simply after an uncomfortable moment of silence.

"I know I shouldn't have!" Jake barked in response, enough to make Lilly veer away from him again.

"Sorry," he said when he saw her do it. "It was a dumb mistake. I just got caught up in the moment and then Cadpig walked in and it was all just a mess."

He looked away sullenly, but was surprised to feel a warm paw on his shoulder. He turned to see Lilly gently touching him. And, for the first time, Jake did not flee from her touch.

"But what's it matter," Jake said gloomily. "She'll never forgive me for what I did, and she never should!"

"Don't be so sure about that," Lilly said with surprising slyness. "Everybody deserves a second chance. And she's more inclined to grant them than you think."

Jake smiled at Lilly, though he had trouble believing her words. "I can see why you're her friend," he said.

But this tender moment was soon interrupted by another sort of commotion. For Russell, it had turned out, had been just outside of the club himself, playing chess on a barrel. He greeted Walton and Cadpig profusely.

"Ah, my fine friends and finer ladies, you're just who I needed to see right now" he said. "We needed two more for chess!"

"Two more?" Cadpig asked. "But isn't chess a two-player game?"

"Not the way we play it," Walton answered as he made his way toward the barrel. "Cadpig and I would be happy to play. Oh, but Cadpig and Lollie, I don't think you've met MacGregor."

Beside Russell now arose an older individual, a certain white wolf-dog whose large fur seemed almost to form a beard around his lower jowls. His icy blue eyes looked from Cadpig to Lilly in sinister, but unseen, delight.

"The pleasure is all mine, as it always is when meeting beautiful young ladies. But, Walton, if you don't mind, I think we should let the two ladies have the empty spots. We are nothing if not gentlemen, after all."

Walton made a sour face but recognized MacGregor's point. He stepped aside so that Cadpig could take her place on one side of the barrel. Lilly followed her hesitantly.

"But… but… I don't know how to play chess," she whispered in Cadpig's ear.

"Don't worry, Lilly, I'll be here to help you the whole time," Cadpig answered. "Though I must say, I've never seen a chess-board like this!"

As Lilly took her seat, she studied the first chess-board she had ever seen. It did look very strange to her, but any sort of board would have looked strange to a naïve little wolf. That it had four sides of play and four sets of pieces rather than the usual two could have not meant anything to her. She could not appreciate that what she was looking at was unusual even for chess-boards.

"Excellent," MacGregor said in a hissing sort of way that made Lilly unconsciously shiver. "Now, let us play males versus females. Just like life, this shall be a great game of chess!"

* * *

***The story Cadpig is referring to is a legend about the death of Langdarma, last Emperor of Tibet, who was indeed assassinated by a Buddhist monk.**

* * *

**Our two heroines' enemy has found them and they do not even realize it!**

**Shall they escape his clutches before it is too late?**

**Read on to find out.**


	8. The Wheel of Fortune

**A new chapter, in which things continue to turn around for our heroines.**

**(One of these days, I am going to match one of these titles to its proper number.)**

**Also, for those following "Lilly on Trial," there is a new poll on my profile page regarding that story.**

**But don't rush off to vote in it now. Stay awhile and read this chapter.**

* * *

**VIII. The Wheel of Fortune. VIII.**

* * *

_Jasper Park, nightfall. _

The preparations had all been made and the time had come. Everything was ready and there was not a single second to lose. Kate had already left at daybreak, going southward toward Idaho, expecting Humphrey to retrace the steps of their late journey.

Garth had no such advantage. He had known Lilly for only a few days after all and, though he felt as though he knew the deepest recesses of her soul, he had to admit that there were parts of her life he simply had not learned about. Was there any place she had wanted to go, any corner of the map she had dreamed of seeing? Garth had never asked her; the subject simply never came up in their short time together.

Curse the shortness of time, Garth thought, thus joining the pantheon of philosophers and sages the world over who have made the same statement through the millennia.

He would just have to take the next train and trust in luck or fate or whatever higher power was in charge of looking down over him to lead him to Lilly. Somehow, he knew that they were destined to be together. The funny thing was, despite having his whole life planned out for him from birth by his parents, Garth never thought much about fate or destiny. Until now.

In fact, Garth now found himself musing awhile as he waited for the coming train. He thought back to how things had worked out just right for him and Lilly to be together. Everything had fallen perfectly into place – if Kate hadn't disappeared, if Humphrey hadn't been taken with her, if Lilly hadn't been able to work up the courage to offer to show Garth around the west, if her offer hadn't been the only thing that could have prevented war from breaking out then and there – they never would have gotten the chance to even speak to one another, much less fall in love. But things had all worked out in the end.

And then Garth had gone and blown it all. He knew he had done wrong. He heard that little voice inside telling him so the whole night before the wedding. And then, as he stood there with Kate and saw Lilly behind her looking completely devastated and heartbroken, that little voice became a piercing scream. And yet he had not listened. So here he was. It appeared destiny could be undone after all.

Though Garth's actions may have thus solved the old conundrum and proven that fate and free will could indeed coexist, he drew little comfort from the fact. All he cared about now was Lilly. The only face he saw in his head was her face, with her elegant snout pointed toward the ground and her large, beautiful lavender eyes closed so as not to let out the fountain of tears. Every time Garth saw that face in his mind, his heart broke all over again.

Fortunately or unfortunately (Who can tell?), his melancholy meditations were soon broken by the slow sounds of pawsteps approaching his position. Garth listened intently, just as his training had taught him (If only it had taught him other things!), and could tell that the individual coming toward him was having trouble walking. A limp? No, not a limp. A bad back, more likely. Garth realized that it could only be his father, Tony, no longer Eastern Pack chief but still owner of the worst spinal column in the western provinces.

He got to his feet, knowing that he would have to find a quick way of explaining himself.

"Garth!" Tony called out.

"Dad, I–" Garth began to explain. He was curious to find out how he would finish that statement.

Tony was much less curious, as he immediately interrupted. "There you are, son! I've been looking all over the valley for you and Kate! You two didn't sneak off to a lovers' tryst without telling anyone, now did you?"

Garth was disarmed by the warmth and friendliness of Tony's reply. If he was not mistaken, his father was actually smiling at him. It could be a snarl, as it was always so hard to tell with Tony, but Garth thought that for once it was actually supposed to be a smile.

"Dad, I–"

Tony put up his hand to stop Garth. "No need to explain, son! Kids will be kids, after all. Where is your new bride, anyway? _Freshening up_, if you know what I mean?"

Garth shook his head, more to get that unpleasant mental image out than in response to his father. "What? No! Kate's gone!"

He immediately froze as he just realized what he had let slip. The newlyweds had hoped to keep their departures a secret until both were far from Jasper.

"Oh, so she's already getting back to pack duties, eh?" Tony said with an even larger smile/snarl. "Fine girl, fine girl. I always knew she would come through in the end. You both did the right thing, and I'm proud of the both of you!"

Garth chuckled nervously. "Yeah, dad, that's great. But I don't think you should be this far from the healer's den with that bad back of yours…."

Garth knew he had to get his father out of the area before the train arrived and that was the best idea he could think of. It was not a very good idea – Garth also knew how much Tony hated to be lectured about his back and braced for the usual stream of colorful expressions – but the red Alpha could hardly think straight, all things considered.

"My, son, I think you're right there," Tony said with another wave of the paw. "But that's the good son you are, always looking out for your old man."

Garth's jaw dropped roughly ten feet. Or so that's how it felt to him. "You aren't mad?"

Tony laughed – or choked, it was hard to tell, but Garth was going to guess it was laughter – and answered, "Me? Mad? How could I be mad at my only son for just trying to do what's right by his parents? And you do always do what's right by us, don't you, Garth? By me and your mother?"

Garth tilted his head. "My mother? What does mom have to do with any of this?"

"Say, you think you could help me get back toward our den – whoops, I mean, my den now? I don't know, with this back and all and me being so far away, if I'll make it on my own." Tony said, his voice cracking slightly.

Garth sensed something was not right. He knew his father, and Tony would not ask for help with anything if he could help it. He would probably rather die of starvation and exposure because his back gave out and prevented him from ever getting home than accept the smallest help in that direction.

"Dad, is something the matter?" Garth asked respectfully, but with genuine concern.

Tony laughed hoarsely and this time did actually break into a short coughing fit. When he had recovered, he said, "Shucks, son, why would anything be wrong? I'm completely fine. Just so proud of my only son who always does right by his parents, is all."

"Since when do you use words like 'shucks'? Or for that matter, when do you say 'proud' and 'son' in the same sentence?" Garth asked.

"Never mind that now," Tony said, "but we should be getting home, don't you think? It's awfully dark out now and you don't want to be here when the train arrives, do you?"

Garth's words now became slow and lengthened as he tried to work out exactly how to say this without his father catching on to his true purpose. "Actually, dad… I think I should stay here… for now…. There's someone who needs my help and I won't let her down. Not again."

Tony's false smile suddenly faded. Now, Garth saw an emotion he did not think could exist in his father's stubborn face; panic, pure and genuine panic.

"Garth," Tony said, "it's Audrey. It's your mother. They've got her."

"Mom?" Garth said. "This is about mom? But she left us."

Tony shook his head furiously. "No, she didn't leave, Garth! They've got her. And they'll hurt her if you leave. Don't you see, son? _They'll kill her_ if you leave!"

Garth shook his own head, trying desperately to make sense of these mad words. "Dad, you're not making any sense. Who's got mom?"

"They said if I didn't go through with my part, if I didn't force Winston into marrying you and Kate, that they'd kill her. I did my part, son! I didn't want to, I didn't want to push the two packs to the brink of war! _But they made me do it!_ They would have killed Audrey if I didn't!"

Garth quickly grabbed Tony's shoulders, as his father was shaking so badly that he expected him to fall right onto the tracks. "Calm down, dad. It's alright. Why don't you just start from the beginning? Who are you talking about? Who has mom? And what do they want?"

"Winston thought it was me the whole time. He thought I ordered that attack on Can-do. I told him it wasn't my style! It was them! They did the attack on that Western Beta. They were the ones who sent Claw and Scar to ruin Kate's first hunt. They scared up the caribou to cause the stampede. They've been manipulating us all along!"

Garth smiled in pity at his rambling father. "Dad, you haven't been secretly listening to _Coast to Coast AM_ on the old human wireless again, have you? Remember what happened the last time when you became convinced that Edgar's whole family were alien reptiles from Alpha Centauri?"

Tony suddenly recovered some of his old spark. His face took on its normal look; anger. He pointed to his son in a stern, chastising manner. "Now, you were never able to prove that they aren't reptilians in wolf suits! And you have to admit, it explains so much!"

Garth nodded slowly. "Okay, I admit that that kinda makes sense, knowing Edgar. But this, this doesn't make any sense at all, dad! I mean, who's supposed to be doing all this? The Illuminati? The Freemasons? Come on, dad, no secret cabal is going to care about what wolves in some backward part of Canada are doing with their love-lives."

Tony growled. "The Illuminati are just a bunch of posers and the Freemasons are nothing more than a glorified country club, but the forces at work here are the real deal! And they will stop at nothing to get what they want!"

But, from somewhere distant, Garth could hear the sound of wheels on tracks. The train was coming, an inexorable force that could not be stopped for anything, least of all for Tony's conspiracy theories.

"As much as I love debating evil international cults with you, dad," Garth said as gently as he could, "I really have to go. Like I said, there's someone who needs me more than you do. And I can't let her down again."

Garth turned toward the tracks and began to rev himself up in preparation for the jump of a lifetime.

"No, Garth! You can't go after her! She's not just an Omega!"

Garth turned in shock to Tony. He could not even think of something to say.

"Garth, I've always known," Tony said simply. "More importantly, they've always known. They have big plans for her, plans which you and I are not a part of. Just forget about her and we'll be safe from them at last."

The train was coming closer. Its monstrous rumbling nearly drowned out the two wolves' voices now. It's wheels gleamed brightly in the distance as they approached ever-so-swiftly.

"Dad, I need to go!" Garth said, not knowing what else he could say after his father's bizarre revelation.

"No, son! Don't you dare!" Tony barked back. "She's nothing to you! The Omega is nothing to you! You've known her for, what, two days? What about your mother, your dear mother who gave birth to you and raised you into the Alpha you are today?"

Garth growled now. "But the Alpha I am today is not the person I want to be! That Omega has a name, dad. It's Lilly, and Lilly was the one who made me see that I don't want to be who you and mom raised me to be. She showed me another life. And I can't let her down no matter who gets hurt!"

"Your own mother, Garth!" Tony shouted in desperation as the train's approaching horn and the violent turning of the wheels began to drown even that out. "How could you do this to your own mother? She's the one you should owe all your love! She's the one who's been there for you your whole life! The Omega hasn't!"

"I can't make you understand, dad, and I don't have time anyway," Garth said. "But I was meant to be with Lilly. I don't care what you or mom or your Secret Order of Curmudgeons says. That's according to a plan higher than theirs – my own!"

Just as Garth said these words, the train flew past. With a run swifter than the eye could follow and a truly amazing circular leap, Garth landed inside. He turned to give one last look upon Tony, whose eyes were now filled with tears.

"You're the death of your mother, son!" Tony screamed angrily. "You killed her just as sure as if you tore her throat out yourself!"

"I'm sorry, dad," Garth called back, "but I have to save Lilly, no matter who has to get hurt in the process."

And then Jasper was just a small blur in Garth's past. He thought about it no more. As he walked slowly around the cabin, Garth picked up a familiar scent. He traced it until he reached the open door on the other side. And there, Garth picked up a single strand of fur, the color shining a most luminous white in the light of the moon.

Garth smiled. He was now certain that someone or something was watching over him.

* * *

"Your move, sweetheart," Russell said after having moved one of his few remaining yellow pieces along the board.

Lilly looked down at her wide array of white pieces. Though Cadpig had carefully explained the rules of the game to her and MacGregor had even more carefully explained the rules of this four-sided variant, she still could not help but feel overwhelmed.

"Um… um…" she muttered as she held her paw up to her forehead, the three toes lightly touching her bangs.

"Take your time, please," MacGregor said with a sinister smile as his paw slowly rocked one of his black towers.

"Um, ah!" Lilly stretched out a paw to take a piece. Which piece it was, her companions never found out, for she quickly retracted it and put the paw to her chin. She was clearly thinking better of that move, whatever it had been.

Lilly looked up to see Cadpig smiling gently at her from over her assortment of red pieces. She smiled back and looked to her own pieces once again. And as her eyes locked on a white knight, they became wide with wonder. Lilly had made up her mind and now just had to make her move.

She moved the white knight gently toward a square not far from Russell's yellow king. This was not the first of her pieces to get close to his king, as she had a number of others on surrounding squares, completely blocking it from retreating to safer ground.

"Did I do it okay?" Lilly asked innocently.

"I'll say!" Cadpig answered enthusiastically. "Lilly, that's checkmate!"

"Well, I'll be stuffed and mounted!" Russell said as he knocked his king over in disgust. "If I had known that I'd be cleaned out like this, I never would have suggested that we needed more players!"

"Now, now, Russell," MacGregor said, "you lost fair and square. You just have to accept that, for this game at least, she was the better canine."

Russell grumbled as he rose from the ground. "Better canine? Better canine? I need a drink!"

He walked into the _Bohemian Bloodhound_, past Jake who was standing in the entryway and carefully watching the proceedings of the chess match, and toward the bar where Walton stood.

"One ice-water on the rocks, and don't skim on the ice this time!" Russell commanded the bartender, who quickly sought to fulfill the request.

Then he turned to Walton, who was himself sipping on the finest ice-water in town. "Ladies beating us at chess! Can you imagine? Anything more like this and they'll be impossible to control. They'll start thinking they run the world!"

"I thought they already did," Walton answered as he took another sip.

"That's the problem with you," Russell said. "It's people like you, spending all your time at the beck and call of ladies, that make them think they can do anything! When you're not together with those two girls, you're rushing to gratify Maud's every little whim! And you call yourself a canine of character!"

Walton rolled his eyes. "You always get like this when you lose a chess match. It's everyone's fault but your own."

"I was a West Coast canine chess champion three years running!" Russell barked back. "So it can't be my fault!"

"Cutting a trophy out of a box of cereal and then writing 'Chess Champon' on it does not a chess champion make," Walton answered skillfully.

Russell turned away in slight embarrassment. "Well, how was I supposed to know there's an 'i' in champion? Spelling was never my strong suit, you know that!"

Walton just shook this off, knowing that it was better not to argue with Russell when he was in a mood like this.

The silence seemed to do the trick, as the illusion of getting his own way made Russell calm down somewhat. When he talked next, he was already in a much better mood. "So, did you go out to the thing with Maud last night?"

Walton shook his head. "No, unfortunately not. I had to get the girls to that lot, _per instructions_, remember? And then I had to stay around to make sure everything went fine and Brother_ Tabernae Fures Erunt Accusati_ did not get himself into too much trouble. It was lucky I did, and it was lucky that Maud showed me how to rig a Catherine Wheel on our last date, or else he would have been done for."

"Which I thank you for most heartily, Brother _Stultus Est Sapiens Inversus_," said a voice behind them. Both Walton and Russell turned around to see Roland standing at the bar not far from them.

"My word, Roland, what are you doing here?" Walton said.

"After… the little accident last night," Roland said with a hint of embarrassment, "our father wanted me to keep a closer eye on those two in case another opportunity should present itself. And I figured that while I'm here, I might as well check in with you and Brother _Non Fumans Pars _here."

"To the Order!" Russell said, having just gotten his drink and now lifting it in toast.

"To the Order!" both Walton and Roland said in agreement.

"So, Brother _Tabernae_," Walton now said, "what do you plan on doing so that there will not be an embarrassing repeat of last night?"

"Don't worry about me, Brother _Stultus_," Roland answered. "I'll get them when the time is right. But Father _Bibe Et Vehe Non_ wanted to study them first, see if he could get inside their heads and come up with a plan to entrap them."

"Checkmate!" Cadpig shouted from outside.

"Looks like he's doing a fine job of it," Walton remarked cooly.

"Have a little more faith, Brother _Stultus_, like me and Brother _Non_ have!" Roland answered smugly, giving Russell a tremendous pat on the shoulder which nearly caused the terrier's water to go flying.

"I have faith in whoever doesn't cause me to spill my drink!" Russell barked abrasively.

They overheard MacGregor laugh shrilling and say, "My, my, you ladies are skilled. Much more skilled than we thought! But you always have to be careful, because you never know what your next opponent has up his sleeve!"

"Is that a threat, buddy?" they heard Jake exclaim.

"Jake! Don't be rude! Don't be silly!" Cadpig chastised. "Don't be rude and silly! Neither of them fits you all that well!"

"Ah, forgive him, my dear," said MacGregor. "He is young and the young can be so impulsive. He shall learn better as he ages."

"What's that supposed to mean, as I age?" Jake said, so earnestly looking for any hint of malevolence that he did not realize how bizarre he was sounding.

"Jake, remember what I just said two seconds ago about not sounding rude or silly?" Cadpig asked sweetly. "Well, honey, you're doing it again."

"You just called me honey!" Jake said in pleasant surprise, his joyful shock at hearing this term of endearment being enough to wipe out the remainder of the sentence from his mind.

"He's a complete cretin," Walton observed.

"I'll drink to that!" Russell added as he gulped down the last of his water.

"You'll drink to anything," Walton responded snidely.

"That I will!" Russell answered as though it had been a compliment. "Barkeep, another water!"

"I don't know, Mr. %" the bulldog answered. "You've had three already!"

"Come on!" Russell barked. "Ain't nobody ever gotten drunk on water!"

"%?" Walton said.

"It's my new penname?" Russell explained. "You like it?"

"What happened to '!' ?"

"Oh, yeah, that. Turns out somebody's already using that one. Would you believe it? Best penname in the world and some jerk out of Tampa already has it!"

"It's enough to make one wonder if there's any justice left in the world," Roland remarked with more sarcasm than either of the other two had seen from him before.

But as they were talking, the trio never took their eyes off of the quartet making a circle at the front of the club.

Here now, Cadpig and Lilly were both instinctively getting to their feet.

"Well, it's been lovely," Cadpig said, "but we really have to be going. Busy day today!"

"Must you leave so soon?" MacGregor asked with a smile. "I was just about to buy you two lovely ladies and your young friend a drink. It's a tradition around here that the loser in a chess match pays for the winners. And I do hate to break with tradition."

"That's a very generous offer," Cadpig responded, "but we really do have other things that we simply must get done. There was something I absolutely promised to show Lilly and I can't let her down. Isn't that right, Lilly?"

"Um, yeah, that's right," Lilly responded with a flustered nod of the head.

"Well, I'm so sorry to hear that," MacGregor said as he bowed his own head politely. "But you two will let me buy you a drink before you leave town, won't you? I would feel personally embarrassed if you didn't allow me to at least extend that courtesy."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Cadpig said nervously. "But we really should be going now. So, thanks for the game and say bye to Walton for us!"

"Bye-bye," Lilly added quietly with a little wave of her paw.

Both then quickly began walking away from the _Bloodhound_, so quickly that Jake was surprised and had to rush after them. When he reached them at last, Cadpig had her foreleg around Lilly's shoulders, as though afraid that the wolf would get blown away in the wind.

"Guys, what was that about?" he asked, not trying to hide his concern. "Not that I'm not happy to be out of the company of those deadbeats, but why the sudden turnaround?"

"I don't think I trust that guy," Lilly said, more to Cadpig than to Jake.

"I know, Lilly, I know," Cadpig answered. "And I don't trust him either. He has a dark aura. A very dark aura. I've never seen one that dark before. There's definitely some evil surrounding him."

Roland, Walton, and Russell approached MacGregor as he watched the three white dogs disappear around the block. The kindly look of a friendly old canine had disappeared from his face and was now replaced by burning, yet harnessed, rage.

Without waiting for any of them to speak, he said. "This confirms my suspicions. The doggess is about to teach the she-wolf how to expand her own powers. If that is allowed to proceed, it could only make our task that much harder. And the mistress would not be pleased at all. Roland, you must try again tonight. And this time, you cannot fail!"

* * *

**Dark schemes are clearly brewing.**

**Shall Garth reach Lilly in time?**

**Read on.**


	9. The High Priestess

**I'm back once again, with another new and (hopefully) exciting chapter.**

**I also wanted to say thank you to mechenuy and infernoblades99 for your reviews.**

**As well as a thank you to Dancing Lunar Wolves for his invaluable help in making these stories great.**

**Now, on to the chapter itself. **

**Here we go again:**

* * *

**IX. The High Priestess. IX.**

* * *

Lilly found herself walking through a pleasant valley surrounded by trees. It was a good day, a sunny day, the type of day which just made her as warm inside as it made her white fur shine bright outside. It was calm, it was peaceful, and Lilly felt like she never wanted to leave.

"That's right, that's good," Cadpig said beside her. "Just keep going. Just keep doing like you're doing. You've got it right."

Lilly smiled and looked ahead. In the distance, she saw the largest tree of all, a mighty old tree with numerous branches that seemed to reach high into the heavens themselves. Upon each of the branches were leaves, large red leaves, each in the shape of a heart.

"That's it," Cadpig said. "Remember, keep your mind empty. Don't think, just feel. Everything is emptiness, everything is one. Remember that."

Lilly did not see how she could have much trouble remembering that when it was all Cadpig had been talking about this afternoon. She did not see how it could be any trouble at all to make it to that tree in the distance.

But, then, suddenly, she saw Garth in her path. It was not so much that he just appeared, for Lilly had the sense that he had been there the whole time. But she had never even noticed him before and so his appearance still came as a shock.

"Garth, what are you doing here?" she said.

"No!" Cadpig said, as calmly as she could. But her voice was rising in, if not panic, at least concern. "No, Lilly, don't!"

Garth did not answer.

"Well, aren't you gonna say something?" Lilly asked innocently. "I mean, aren't we friends? Weren't we more than–"

To Lilly's utter shock, Garth now let out a disdainful laugh. "More than friends? How could I be more than friends with an Omega, especially one as pathetic as you? A weak little coward who can't stand up for herself, and a white-furred freak to boot! No, I could never love you, not when I've got somebody like Kate!"

And suddenly, Kate was there too, though Lilly had the strange feeling that she'd always been there and Lilly had just never noticed it. She smiled wickedly at her younger sister as she nuzzled her face against Garth's.

"My, my," Kate said, "if it isn't my little baby sister. What's little baby so upset about? You fall in the mud again and now you're going to tattle to mom on me? Since you can't do something about it yourself? I wish I had had a real sister, one who acts like a wolf and not a turtle!"

"I… I… I am a real wolf!" Lilly blurted out, only for Kate and Garth to start mockingly saying "Turtle, little baby turtle," over and over again.

Lilly turned to Cadpig. "What do I do? Do you see them? What do I do, Cadpig?"

"Lilly, there's no one there!" Cadpig responded, more alarm having found its way into her voice. "You have to believe me, there's no one there!"

In panic, Lilly turned from the Dalmatian back to her relations. To her horror, there were now two more wolves, Winston and Eve.

"You know, honey," Winston said, "I'm just so proud of Kate. At least one daughter did not turn into a complete disgrace."

"I know, dear," Eve responded as her mouth curved into a most vicious smile. "Personally, I consider Kate our only real daughter. I'm actually glad the other one left to go die in the wilderness. It saved me the trouble of culling her."

"Her?" said Humphrey, who Lilly suddenly noticed behind them. "I think you mean 'it'!"

Winston and Eve both laughed. "You're right there," Winston said. "I had always hoped you'd marry it, Humphrey. That way, I'd at least gain a decent son-in-law in exchange for the full year of pain and disappointment we had to go through."

"And if you ever hurt it, I wouldn't have even ripped your skull in two," Eve added. "In fact, I'd give you a big, motherly hug!"

She quickly threw her arms around Humphrey, as did Winston. Lilly, simply to avoid the scene and without thinking, looked back to Kate and Garth. Tony was now among them.

"I'm so proud of you two for uniting the packs," he said. "I was worried about Garth when I caught him howling with that Omega. But in the end he ran her off so that the packs could be united."

Garth smiled at his father. "You didn't have to worry about me, dad. That mutt was just a bit of fun on the side. I was never serious about her. In fact, I wanted her to run away the whole time!"

"She was the cause of all our pack's problems, being a curse," Kate added as she managed to get even closer to Garth than Lilly would have thought possible. "She was a poison on our pack and poison always has to be drained out one way or another!"

"Preferably in the way that annihilates it completely, dear," Eve said as she walked up beside her eldest – and apparently only – daughter.

By this time, Lilly was on the ground, holding her paws tightly over her ears and trying to block out all these words. It was not helping.

"Lilly, don't listen!" Cadpig said. "They're not real! They only have as much power as you give them!"

"I can't help it!" Lilly said. "What they're saying, it's all true!"

The skies were darkening now and the sound of thunder cracked. Rain began to fall in torrents. Lilly could barely see now for fog.

"I'm just thankful that we can all be one big, happy family now that all the shame and disgrace of that creature is gone," Winston said, pulling all the other wolves into a large hug.

"You can say that again, dad," Kate answered.

"Well, if my only daughter thinks so, I just might," Winston responded.

The storm was getting worse and worse. Lilly shut her eyes to try and keep it out, but it did no good. She still felt as though she could see everything that was going on. It was as though, no matter how she tried, she was forced to look and to listen and could not turn herself away.

"Lilly!" Cadpig cried. "It's not true! None of it's true! It can't be! All these things, all these thoughts, are only as true as you let them be! They have no real existence, it's your own mind that is making them seem true. And you can stop that!"

"I don't…. I don't think I can!" Lilly cried back.

"Of course, you can! Just believe in yourself! And believe in me!"

Lilly lifted her head up and stared straight at Cadpig. "I don't know if I can believe in myself. But I believe in you."

"And I believe in you, Lilly," Cadpig answered, her mouth suddenly becoming a smile and her face become a point of serenity in the wicked storm. "I know you can do it."

"You… you believe in me?" Lilly asked, disbelieving. "No one has ever believed in me before. I guess… I guess if you believe, I can believe too."

Lilly turned to face the apparitions again. While Kate and Garth and Humphrey and Tony and Winston and Eve all looked just as frightening as before, Lilly noticed something in the distance, something that gave her great hope. The magnificent tree of heart-shaped leaves stood still, strongly resisting all the force of the storm. In fact, it did not even seem to register the storm at all, so great and strong was it. This gave Lilly hope.

Ignoring the jeering faces of her friends and family, Lilly darted straight for the tree. She did not look away and did not stop until she had reached it. She felt her dark family on her tail at every step, but refused to look back, refused to give in. And the tree was so close.

She made it. She was there. She was safe under the protection of the tree. The tree's wide branches and large leaves seemed to create a world all their own, a world where it was eternally spring. Lilly felt her spirits soaring again as she trotted along under the tree. Finally, her courage worked up, she turned around and sat down facing the phantoms pursuing her.

They were clearly angry. Each of them growled and howled madly. The spectral Eve even managed to outdo her living counterpart in ferocity – which is saying something. The troop of ghosts was intent on having their victory and would not let anything spoil it. Altogether and all at once, they charged at Lilly under the tree.

But each one turned to dust as soon as they came under the shadow of those leafy-hearts above. They were gone, they were gone. And with them, the storm and the rain departed, leaving only the glorious summer sky smiling above.

Lilly turned to Cadpig beside her and smiled. "I… I did it."

Cadpig nodded and smiled back. "I always knew you had it in you."

At this moment, Lilly opened her eyes. She was once more, or actually still, at Jake's small flat, sitting upon the blanket near the scraps of papers. Cadpig was hovering over her, swiftly fluttering about in a circular motion that made her seem like a Moon to Lilly's planet or a planet to Lilly's Star, whichever you prefer.

"See," Cadpig said, "all it took was a little concentration and a refusal to give those illusions power over you."

Lilly smiled slightly. "I guess you were right after all. I feel better already."

Jake was watching all this from the entryway to the kitchen. "That's great, Cadpig, but positive visualizations aren't going to help her much if that hooded creep attacks again."

Cadpig sighed and did not bother to look at Jake. "Always Mr. Bad Vibes, aren't you?"

Jake shook his head and sighed himself. "It's not that, Pig. You know I've always been very accepting of your mystical fads. But I really don't see how they're going to be of much use this time."

"They are not fads," Cadpig answered sharply. "And there's a lot more going on here than you think."

"So just like old times, then?" Jake responded.

"Trust me," Cadpig said, "this is what Lilly needs right now. Everything else will fall into place afterwards."

Jake now approached Cadpig and, to her surprise, put his paw on her shoulder. "I know you really believe that all this meditating can change the world, but I'm worried. I'm worried about what happens if that sicko or some of his buddies come after the two of you again and we're not ready to fight them off. Things could get really bad really quick. And I don't want to see that happen to you, Cadpig."

Cadpig, rather than responding to Jake's gesture, refocused her attention on Lilly. "I know you don't, Jake, but I've got everything under control. There's nothing you need to worry about. Now, Lilly, repeat after me – _Om Tara Tutara Tura Soha_."

"Om… Ta-ta-tara… Tu…tu…tu," Lilly began, suggesting that she was trying to sound out the words to herself in order to recall them.

"Cadpig, I really don't think you're being reasonable here," Jake said as he approached Cadpig again.

"Lilly, like this," Cadpig said gently. "_Om Tara Tutara Tura Soha!_"

Though she had started speaking gently, as her mouth formed the sacred syllables of the mantra, Cadpig's voice rose and hardened. And she turned, as she was speaking, toward Jake, throwing her paw out in front of her. As the magic syllables escaped her mouth, Jake was pushed back several meters.

Both Lilly and Jake looked stunned, for different reasons.

"What… what just happened?" Jake asked as he tried to regain his bearing and his shattered sense of reality.

"Ooh, is that what those words do?" Lilly asked, her eyes growing wide in excitement. "Can I try next? Pretty pretty please?"

Jake shook his head nervously. Whatever had happened, he wanted no part in a repeat. "I'm not letting you girls stay here so I can be a psychic punching-bag! I'm not here to be hit over and over again by invisible fists! Unless we're playing Mortal Kombat, but that's a whole 'nother story."

Cadpig ignored Jake. "No, Lilly, that is not _specifically_ what those words do. The mantra is a special tool to channel your focus, your energy, and your inner strength. It is not an incantation. It's the key that unlocks your higher being, not the button that unleashes it."

Jake managed to work up enough of his courage to walk over. "Okay, I got it now. You're teaching young Lilly here how to be some sort of psychic ninja. All I can say is that's… something. That is definitely some sort of thing…."

Cadpig rolled her eyes. "How _very_ perceptive of you."

Jake shrugged. "I try."

"If I didn't believe in the power of positive thinking," Cadpig answered, "you'd make me think that sometimes trying just isn't enough."

Jake shook his head. "Oh, we're not having this old argument again, are we? Just because I dated a few girls other than you after we broke up, suddenly I'm weak-willed, is that it?"

Cadpig made a clicking sound with her tongue and turned away. "No, I'm not saying anything like that, Jake–"

Then, suddenly, she turned back toward him and the look in her eyes made him take a step back for fear of being mentally shoved again.

"What do you mean, _a few girls_?" she said.

Jake nervously tried to answer. "Well, we were split, so I… I was travelling and… when you travel, you meet people… and… things happen… and… there's really something… some sort of thing… and…."

"Just tell me one thing," Cadpig commanded. "Just tell me that, just promise me that, none of them were _her._"

Jake smiled bashfully. "Well, maybe one or two were her, a little bit. I ran into her again down near Needles somewhere. And, well, we kinda got together for a while."

For his troubles, he was rewarded with another slap/haymaker by Cadpig.

"Why did it have to be _her_?" Cadpig fumed. "You promised me it would never be _her_!"

Jake recovered and checked to make sure Cadpig had not drawn blood. He was lucky, this time. "Well, sometimes things happen. I mean, I saved her life, after all, so you can understand how she'd have a little hero-worshipping crush on me."

"You are such a pig!" Cadpig yelled.

"Takes one to know one," Jake countered.

His first clue that it did not work was when Cadpig and Lilly both gasped at his audacity. His second clue was when another haymaker knocked him on his back.

"It was a joke," he quickly said. "I didn't mean it! Honest! It's just, Cadpig, you know. Cad-_Pig_. Get it? It's like a pun or something."

"Can you believe the nerve of some people?" Cadpig remarked to Lilly.

"I'm scandalized," Lilly responded matter-of-factly. "I feel soiled just hearing such inappropriate language."

Jake rose to his feet. "I'm sorry, really I am. I didn't mean to hurt you, Cadpig."

Cadpig forced herself to smile, though she was still annoyed. "Why, thanks. And I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to hurt you either."

Jake cradled his sore jaw. "Yeah, the two haymakers would seem to indicate you did."

Cadpig shrugged. "What can I say? I can't always be held responsible for the things I do when I'm angry."

"Just like mom," Lilly muttered.

"Well, you can punch as well with your fists as with your mind," Jake said, "so I guess we really do have nothing to worry about." He was not truly convinced of this, but he thought it might smooth things over by conceding the argument to Cadpig.

But Cadpig was not even paying attention. Her floppy ears were lifted up over her head in that strange way which made them almost resemble those of a normal Dalmatian. Her blue eyes were looking away, toward something unknown.

"Do you guys hear that?" she asked.

Jake and Lilly exchanged looks than shook their heads. Both answered with a quiet "No."

"There's something," Cadpig continued. "Something's coming. I can hear it. And my hearing is never wrong."

"Cadpig, I don't hear anything," Lilly said as kindly as she could.

"But she has to be right, doesn't she?" Jake responded. "I mean, her hearing _is_ never wrong. She's not lying about that fact."

"Well, I guess…." Lilly said, half-ready to bow to potentially-superior judgment. "It's just that…. I'm not getting that feeling at all…. I mean, if something was going on, wouldn't there be a–"

Crash!

The plank that acted as the entry-point of the place flew into the opposite wall as a blue-hooded figure burst into the flat, brandishing a sharp dagger madly all the while. He made a bee-line straight for Cadpig, seemingly intent on the kill. But as Cadpig turned to meet him, he stopped in his tracks and held up an amulet.

"Now, I recognize your great proficiency in the magical arts," he said, "but I won't be caught in your snares again! As long as I have this amulet, you can't harm me, because its magic absorbs all of yours and turns it back on you! That's official!"

"The real pity is, I couldn't do that sort of thing to him anyway because you ruined my kundalini flow," Cadpig said in an aside to Jake. "And now I kinda want to."

"Oh, yeah, whenever your kundalini is messed up, it's my fault!" Jake whispered back.

"Most things are," Cadpig retorted.

"Now, surrender," Roland said, "for there's no escape now! I shall finally be able to avenge myself for that humiliation you delivered to me last night! Then you'll know not to mess with Brother_ Tabernae Fures Erunt Accusati _ever again."

"It's a bit overdramatic, don't you think?" Cadpig whispered to Jake.

"Just a tad," Jake responded.

What Roland failed to realize was that as he kept Jake and Cadpig at point-blank range with his amulet and gave his rambling statements, Lilly had managed to come up behind him and free the dagger from his paw without his realizing. She now replaced it with a flower she had picked earlier.

When Roland was finished speaking and neither Cadpig nor Jake showed any signs of giving themselves up, he became infuriated. Without giving it a second thought, he lunged at them with the flower, only to promptly realize that it was a flower.

"What, my new dagger, where did it go?" Roland said as he threw the flower to the ground. Then he saw Lilly behind Cadpig and Jake, holding the dagger in one paw and waving the other in friendly greeting.

Roland growled in frustration and thrust his amulet out before him again. "Whatever sorcery you used to take my trusty dagger – How else could I keep losing those? – from me is not important. For this amulet is greater than the dagger. It is guaranteed to nullify all your powers and turn them back on you ten-thousand-fold. There's no way you could defeat this ultimate weapon."

Cadpig and Jake exchanged glances and then, without a word being said between them, leveled Roland with two equally well-placed haymakers to the middle of his face. They then promptly exchanged high-fours.

When Roland awoke a few minutes later, he found himself under the combined weight of Cadpig and Jake. Behind them, Lilly was busy twirling his amulet in front of herself.

"Now, I've gotten a bit tired of all this cloak-and-dagger stuff," Cadpig said as she leaned her face closer toward his. "And the use of a real cloak and a real dagger just takes literalism way too far. Now, who are you and why do you keep stalking us? What do you want?"

Roland's eyes lit up in fear. He did not want to know what this strange female might do to get the information she desired. But he also knew he could not betray the trust placed upon him by the brotherhood.

"I… I…" he said, "I'll never tell you! I'm under strict orders not to reveal anything, even unto pain of death. So you'll get nothing from me!"

"So, you got superiors then, huh?" Cadpig said. "I guess that means you're just a lackey, a pawn, a stooge."

Roland shook his head. "I am no lackey! I am a valued and trusted member of the Or–… er, I mean, I am the right hand of Father _Bib_– um, I have orders not to tell you anything!"

"Hey, Cadpig," Lilly said from behind them. "This amulet has the same crescent-moon symbol that the daggers do! That must mean something!"

"Of course it means something!" Roland mocked. "But you'll never figure it out, you insipid barbarian! The symbolism of the Silver Moon is only intelligible to members of the Order of the Silver Moon in the first place!"

"Order of the Silver Moon?" our three heroes said together.

Roland closed his eyes in self-hating embarrassment. He realized that, for all his vows to not reveal anything, even unto pain of death, he had just revealed much without even meaning to. Life could be hard like that on an initiate sometimes.

"So, whosever after us must be part of the Silver Moon thing," Cadpig said. "And thus it stands to reason that the Silver Moon is who's after us."

"Sounds reasonable," Jake said. "Though their choice of name is really lame."

"It is a great name!" Roland shouted. "An honorable name, a proud name, a powerful name!"

"A boring name," Jake finished.

"Besides, I don't think you're really in much of a position to argue, do you?" Cadpig said.

Roland recognized how bad things looked. He recognized how much he had messed up. He knew that he could not undo the damage he had already done. But perhaps he could prevent himself from causing further damage. It would take drastic steps to do it, but it could be done. Roland knew that and he also knew that he had vowed to die to preserve the secrets of the Order. So he would have to die.

As Cadpig continued to stand over him, Roland began muttering under his breath. Before anyone had realized what he was doing, there was a flash of white light from him and he stopped moving completely.

Cadpig and Jake bent down in concern to find him staring blankly back at them. They could find no other sources of life at all.

"Is he dead?" Cadpig asked.

At which point, Roland let out a loud scream and began babbling in some incoherent tongue.

"Guess not," Jake answered.

"He must have used some sort of spell that would prevent him from revealing more information," Lilly remarked.

Jake looked at her in surprise while Cadpig beamed with pride. Lilly smiled bashfully and turned away. The two very different reactions managed to cause Lilly the same emotion; shy embarrassment. And now she just wanted to hide her face from theirs.

"Told you she'd be a fast learner," Cadpig said to Jake.

Roland let out another loud scream – this one enough to momentarily stun Cadpig – and began to say even more incomprehensible nonsense words.

"Put a sock in it!" Cadpig said, as she looked around for something to carry out the command. She could not find a sock, but she saw a wedge of paper which would do the job aptly. With a flick of her wrist, Roland had been pacified. For he now drifted off to sleep like a baby with a pacifier.

"Now, _that _was overdramatic!" Cadpig remarked.

"Yeah, you think he'd have come up with a quieter way of offing himself so he couldn't squeal," Jake observed.

Lilly tilted her head as she came up beside Cadpig in order to get a better look at their captured foe. "So… now that he's like this…. What do we do now?"

"I don't know yet," Cadpig answered. "But I do know one thing. This Order of the Silver Moon has been pestering us for too long. It's about time we got them before they get us!"

* * *

Deep inside the Order's secret vault, MacGregor howled in disgust. "Roland, you accursed fool, how could you fail so miserably? And so repeatedly?"

He had just been psychically watching things from Roland's perspective and he had seen the whole debacle. While MacGregor had to admit that he never placed much faith in Roland – or in any of his subordinates really – he had nevertheless always expected better than this.

"The buffoon couldn't even get the self-killing spell right," MacGregor reflected. "He said the wrong thing at the wrong time and inflicted himself with madness instead!"

He now looked up toward his two guests, Walton and Russell.

"I can tell you this right now," he said. "The mistress won't be happy with this. Neither will the other fathers. Not unless we find a way to reserve our misfortune and secure the two white canines for the mistress' plans."

"I don't know," Walton said. "I mean, Cadpig seems pretty powerful. And if she's teaching Lilly like you say, that would make two super-powers for the price of one. Maybe we should just leave them alone and hope somebody else fitting the requirements rolls into town."

Russell quickly indicated his agreement with his friend.

MacGregor yapped loudly. "Leave them alone? Wait for others? Don't you get how it has to be these two and no one else? How much work this Order has put into bringing them together here? Don't you care about any of that at all?"

Walton and Russell both nodded swiftly and nervously. "Of course we do," Walton said, "but Cadpig–"

"No buts!" MacGregor responded. "The mistress' plan shall come to fruition and no ten-cent Madame Blavatsky is going to keep that from happening!"

Walton and Russell both tried to make themselves look small. They knew when they were beaten.

"So what do you plan on doing now?" Russell asked sheepishly.

Suddenly, all of MacGregor's anger was gone, replaced by that diabolical grin. "I'd say it's about time for me to take personal charge of these matters," he said. "And when I take charge of something, I always, always succeed, no matter who's standing in my way! Let us see Cadpig try to quarrel with a real master for a change!"

A chill breeze seemed to run through the labyrinthine corridors of the vault. Walton and Russell shivered as it found the central chamber and rolled itself over them. But MacGregor was motionless, grinning evilly, caught up in the terrible scheme he had in mind for our two heroines.

It was a scheme, like this breeze, that could make the blood of all decent people run cold.

* * *

**Our heroines now know their enemies.**

**But will that even be enough to protect them?**

**What wicked ruse does MacGregor have in store for them?**

**Read on.**


	10. The Empress

**Hey, everyone. I'm back with another chapter. ****This is one is a bit of an interlude in the action.**

**Here, our heroes try to get some perspective on everything that is happening around them.**

**It might not have been what you expected here, but I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**X. The Empress. X.**

* * *

It was late at night. Cadpig was standing in the kitchen, where another board had worn away and gave her a view of the people, both human and canine, clattering around the stairs to the other apartments. As she stood there watching, silently wrapped up in thought, Jake came up beside her.

"Lilly's asleep at last," he said. "I think you're having an influence on her. All she wanted to do was babble about how nervous she was over this whole Silver Moon thing."

Cadpig turned her head slightly toward him and cocked what passed on her head for an eyebrow. "Nervous?"

Jake smiled. "Well, nervous and excited. That's a combination only you can ever inspire in anyone. And I should know from personal experience."

"And what about the other one?" Cadpig asked.

"Oh, him," Jake said. "He's finally shut up and fallen asleep. Doesn't mean he won't suddenly wake up in the middle of the night and start screaming, though. So I took the precaution of restraining him so that he doesn't hurt us while we're sleeping."

"Did you recognize him?" was her reply.

"Hmph," Jake responded. "Why do you always think I'm mixed up in every bizarre or creepy thing happening around here?"

Cadpig smiled as she looked over at Jake. "It's not that. I just thought that since you've been in town longer than Lilly and I, that you might have seen him around."

Jake's mouth curved into a small style to demonstrate his embarrassment. "Oh, right, sorry. But no, I don't remember him. He was probably around, but I just never noticed. Now, you'll probably tell me I should be more observant, right?"

"It might come in handy," Cadpig said softly. "I wish there was more we could do for him."

Jake tilted his head. "More we could do for him? This is the guy who repeatedly tried to abduct you and Lilly. How could you possibly want to do more for him?"

"Everybody has a little bit of good inside them and we don't know his motives," Cadpig said. "Besides, even if he really is a vile snake in the grass without any sort of redeeming qualities whatsoever, nobody should have to go that positively bonkers."

Jake shook his head and smiled. "After all this time, Cadpig, I still don't think I really understand you!"

"Nobody really understands me," Cadpig muttered as she turned back to look through the window again.

Jake approached her and gently put his paws on her shoulders. "What do you mean, Caddy?"

"All those people," Cadpig said, staring straight ahead as a number of other residents passed by each other on the stairs, "living lives filled with such little struggles, preyed upon by all those trifling little thoughts and emotions, vanities they barely know they have. And what they don't even realize is that they could be free, if they just chose to be."

Jake now stretched his foreleg around Cadpig's shoulder. "Cadpig, I don't understand any of this. I've always tried to keep up with your mystical ideas, but this, I don't understand. Suddenly, you show up here, with these strange powers that I didn't even think existed, saying all this stuff about thought and illusion. Cadpig, what's happened to you?"

Cadpig sighed. "What I have becoming, you couldn't really understand. I barely understand it myself. But I know it is who I am and that I was always meant to be so much more than a regular Dalmatian."

She paused for a moment and then said, "I am becoming a luminous being."

"Oh… okay…." Jake answered, still not having the slightest clue. "And what about her?" He nodded his head toward where Lilly lay.

Cadpig looked over at Lilly with something resembling an almost-motherly affection. "She has a spark in her. The same spark as I do. But she doesn't realize it yet. I realized it a long time ago but she still hasn't awoken to what's there, deep inside her, who she truly is. She's just beginning along that path. And that's why I need to focus so much attention on her. She's the only one who could someday understand me."

"So, you've explained all this to her, too?"

"Some of it. I've told her some of my story. But she isn't ready to know all of it, just like you aren't. She knows what she needs to know for now."

"I see – Wait, what do you mean, I don't know your story?"

Jake was quickly becoming indignant, but Cadpig just looked at him with those bright eyes of hers and smiled. "Like I said, you know part of it. But there's always more to every story than what we think we know."

"I'm sorry," Jake said, looking away. "I still don't understand. And maybe Lilly can, but I don't know if I'm able."

"Maybe that's why it never worked between us," Cadpig said.

A certain expression appeared on Jake's face. An expression not of pain, exactly, but one more of loss and longing, of knowing the truth even when one does not wish to know it. And of suspecting that one is responsible for everything one has lost.

Cadpig rubbed her paw gently upon Jake's foreleg. "It's okay," she said, "everything has a purpose, even when we can't understand what it is."

Jake's first inclination was to change the subject. So he did. "It's a shame what happened to her. What with her boyfriend and everything up north. I can't believe he'd actually marry another girl over her! And her sister to boot!"

This thought took Cadpig to a very different place, as it brought back some uncomfortable memories. "You think you two are so different?" she asked sharply in spite of herself.

"How many times and how many ways can I say I'm sorry already?" Jake asked in exasperation, being not the first to realize that trying to avoid the truth often merely means coming to it by a different route. "But, you know, at least I didn't hide behind some excuse about duty."

"No, you're an upfront playboy," Cadpig answered.

"Exactly!" Jake exclaimed. "No! I mean, I'm at least honest about my flaws. But I guess things function differently with wolves. They have no sense of decency or any sort of conscience. Did you know that there are no words for 'right and wrong' in wolf?"

"Oh, but they have ones for 'honor' and 'duty'. Call me crazy–"

"I always do."

"–But I think having those concepts require you to have a basic _idea of the good_ first. Besides, since we share a common language, I think we'd have noticed the absence by now."

Jake shrugged as he realized he was cornered again. "Well, it was just something I heard somewhere. No guarantee it was accurate, I guess. But it's still a terrible thing for her to have had to go through."

Cadpig shook her head suddenly. "There's something wrong with that. Something's wrong with that whole situation."

"I'll say," Jake said. "Methinks little Lilly has one messed-up family."

Cadpig shook her head again, more forcefully this time. "No, it's not that. There's something else wrong. I can't figure out what exactly, but when I was teaching Lilly to meditate earlier, I saw that the way she remembers it is more illusion than truth. I don't think things happened in quite the way she perceived."

"Oh, so after getting me to sympathize with a wolf _– a wolf, and a Canadian one no less _– now you tell me she's wrong about the whole thing?"

"I'm not saying that she didn't go through that experience. But what I'm saying is that it's a jigsaw puzzle after your brother stole the last piece so you could not finish it."

Jake smiled knowingly. "I take it you're speaking from personal experience."

Cadpig rolled her eyes as she remembered. "I told Lucky to leave my chakra-chart puzzle alone, _but no_."

"I know the feeling," Jake answered. "It's like when you're doing a puzzle of your favorite chopper and suddenly a white she-wolf comes from out of nowhere and puts it all together when you're not looking."

Cadpig stared at him reprovingly. "Jake, _let it go._"

"Oh, so you can still be mad at Lucky, but I can't be mad at Lilly?"

Cadpig looked at him smartly. "Lucky did it on purpose. Lilly was trying to help. That's the difference. But can we get back on topic, please? As I was saying, there's something missing from her memory. I'd dare to say that something's been stolen, even! It might be major or minor, but it is missing."

Jake tilted his head yet again. "So, you mean that someone is messing with her mind? Other than you, of course."

Cadpig looked back toward Lilly in concern. "I don't know, but something is definitely going on up there. I just wish I knew how to make her aware of it so we could tear down that mental block. Maybe if I can just get her to clear her mind a little more, just get her to _think without thinking_, then maybe…."

Jake threw up his paws. "Why couldn't it just have been you and your new girlfriend in town for a nice visit? Why did things have to get so complicated so quickly?"

Cadpig once more held out her paw, signaling Jake to take it. Happily, he did so.

"Jake, honey," she said softly and gently, "I know it's hard, but not without a reason. You have to understand, we're trying to break free here and become the people we were destined to be."

She then turned away and back toward the window. "But sometimes destiny must use a lot of force to break us out of our self-made restraints. This is the thunderbolt path, and it's the path we are on now."

* * *

**What is Cadpig's full story?**

**And will Lilly and Jake ever know?**

**What is our heroines' next move?**

**Read on.**


	11. The Emperor

**Hey, everyone. I've got an announcement to make. ****For those of you who are following "Saint Cadpig," I wanted to let you know that the first several chapters of the new, completely rewritten version of the story have been completed. I'm not fully ready to post them yet, but they should be coming very, very soon. So stay tuned to this channel because even more Cadpig fun is just around the corner. But for now, I give you the next chapter of our current story:**

* * *

**XI. The Emperor. XI.**

* * *

The Bohemian Bloodhound, midday. Walton and Russell were relaxing in their usual chairs, enjoying the usual sparkling water and sparkling conversation. Walton was busy relating some amusing anecdote or other.

"So I said when he asked me my opinion of his poem, which was completely rip-off of one of mine, I said, 'Does a dog praise his fleas?' " Walton laughed heartily at his own perceived wit.

"What do you know about fleas?" Russell barked gruffly. "You never get them. Me, on the other hand, they're always crawling all over! Barkeep, another water!"

"Yes Mr. &tc." the bulldog said.

"You've changed your pen-name, again, I see," Walton remarked.

"Yeah, but I think I'm going to keep this one this time," Russell answered. " '&tc.' Just seems to really capture my charming personality."

Walton tilted his head to one side slightly. "I can see that."

Suddenly, then, he felt a pair of paws get a rough grip upon his shoulders. Walton jumped in shock within his chair, at the fearful force through which he had been grabbed. But when he looked up, the shock dissipated.

"Maud," he said dreamily.

The bicolored Irish Setter smiled down at him. "There you are! And I thought I invited you to that pound break-in! You know, I don't usually take kindly to when a guy stands me up! The last one who did found a bottle-rocket in his kibble…."

"How did the break-in go, Maud?" Russell asked.

Maud let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a growl. "Somehow those oppressive human pigs got wise. We barely got out of there before they nabbed us! So, that symbol of wicked, vile tyranny still stands. But not for much longer; I shall strike it down! I'm planning another attempt for next Tuesday."

Walton felt as though Maud's paws were digging rather forcefully into his shoulders by this point. He quickly, and futilely, tried to free himself from those claws. "Maud, I would have been there, honestly! I would have loved to come, but–"

"Don't tell me you forgot where you were going and ended up at the fish shop again. That excuse only works the first seven times."

"No, I did not go to the fish shop!" Walton protested as he turned from Maud to Russell. "Though I would love to. I hear they do eyebrow-threading now!"

"What, they have the fish thread eyebrows?" Russell asked in disbelief.

Walton did as best of a shrug as he could with Maud's claws still digging into him. "I guess so. That's why I want to check it out. Do you actually have to lay underwater so the fish can do it, I wonder? And just why should I trust these fish not to make a mistake and take out my eye? I mean, are they professionals? Have they gone through the proper training program?"

Maud dug her claws in even harsher and deeper, causing Walton to yelp in pain. "Okay, okay," he said. "The reason I couldn't make it was because I had to do a bit of a job for Father _Bibe_." This last part he said in a hushed tone, not wanting any of the other patrons to hear.

Maud immediately let go and actually looked guilty for what she had just done. "Oh, Walton, I'm so sorry! I didn't know that Father _Bibe_ had wanted something done. If I had been informed of it, I never would have invited you to the revolution."

"It's okay," Walton said, turning to Maud and giving her that goofy smile which told her that he had forgiven her long before she had even apologized. "I should be thanking you, though. It was only because you taught me how to set off a Catherine Wheel that I was able to pull it off. Unfortunately, somebody let down their part of the effort."

"Somebody by the name of Brother _Tabernae_," Russell added. "Not to name names, of course."

Maud laughed. "Ah, yes, Roland. No surprise there. He always was a right fool!"

"No, actually, I think that's Walton," Russell replied. "Isn't that right, Brother _Stultus_?"

Walton nodded happily.

"So, what was he supposed to do, anyway?" Maud asked.

"Oh, he was supposed to collect those two girls," Walton said.

"What two girls?"

"The ones that just came in a few days ago. You know, the white ones, the dog and the wolf."

"Don't sound familiar," Maud said matter-of-factly.

"Don't sound familiar?" Walton responded in shock. "But Maud, you met them! And I thought I was the one with the bad memory! Don't you remember? They looked like–"

"Like that!" Russell said in alarm. As he did so, he pointed to a certain white Dalmatian, a certain white Westie, and a certain white wolf who were escorting a grey dog, a dog that seemed completely out of his wits by the looks of him. He was laughing and babbling incoherently, attracting worried looks from all the other patrons. Worried looks, and ones of mischievous interest.

"Yeah, pretty much exactly like them," Walton said. "I mean, the resemblance is uncanny."

Maud tilted her head and squinted her eyes. "Is that…. Roland they have there? That must mean…."

"Uh-oh," the three said together.

Before they knew it, Roland was at their feet, having been swiftly and unceremoniously deposited there by Cadpig. She herself was standing over him and looking at the three almost like a taunting hunter just waiting for its prey to scatter so that the fun could begin. It was hard for the targets of her piercing glare to believe that the real wild predator was the one standing behind her.

"Why, hello, boys," Cadpig said. "And hello, Maud."

"Cadpig, Lollie!" Walton said, ignoring Jake – but for once, not intentionally. "It's so nice to see you again. Would you like a drink? Order whatever you like; it's on me!"

"Maybe something for your friend as well," Russell said, nervously eyeing Roland, who was squirming on the floor, trying desperately to free himself of the makeshift straightjacket Jake had fitted him with.

"If you want my advice," Walton continued, "stay away from the stuff out of the bottle. You never know where it's been. Crystal-blue lakes in the Swiss Alps, my foot!"

"Cut the bologna!" Cadpig said.

Walton turned to Russell. "I didn't know we were having bologna," he said, apparently taking the suggestion quite seriously.

But he was jerked back by a fierce tug on his purple collar. Now Cadpig had his attention.

"Listen up," she said. "This kooky canine just tried to jump us last night. Any idea why?"

The three all offered nervous "No, I couldn't imagine"s.

"Really?" Cadpig said pointedly. "I would have thought, since you all know this city_ like the back of your paws_, that you would have _bumped into him_ at one time or another."

"We might of bumped into him, yeah, but that doesn't mean we knew him," Russell said.

"And you never had any opportunity to speak to him?"

Russell shrugged. "It's a big city." This immediately drew sharp looks from Cadpig and Jake, the surrounding patrons, and even from Walton and Maud themselves.

"He's right, it is," Lilly said with a small nod of agreement.

"Not helping!" Cadpig replied, quietly but firmly.

"I told you we should have left her at home!" Jake muttered.

"Look," Maud said, taking charge of the conversation. As usual. "Cathead, is it? Well, we've never seen this charming individual before at all. So if you've got some problem with him, we're not the ones to call."

"It's Cadpig," the Dalmatian replied flatly. "and I'm not buying it. Now, I don't mean to call you liars here, but you may be a little… factually challenged."

The very idea that she might be factually challenged caused Maud to huff in anger. But she did not answer Cadpig; she had a better idea. So, instead, she turned to Jake with a nasty glare. "And Jake, I'm disappointed! After everything we've been through together, you are allowing these… these outsiders to make such accusations toward me!"

"We went on three dates!" Jake barked.

"You can live a lifetime in three dates," Maud countered.

"No, it just felt that way, stuck with you!" Jake counter-countered.

Lilly realized at this moment that the argument might be helped by switching to a different tack. So she tapped Cadpig on the shoulder. When Cadpig looked back, Lilly subtly handed her the cloak and the dagger. Cadpig, much less subtly, took the opportunity to immediately thrust it out before her.

Walton and Russell jumped back into their chairs, while even Maud looked perturbed.

"She's got a dagger!" Russell yelped. "That's a dangerous implement! She's going to attack us!"

"Oh, quit being such babies," Cadpig snapped. "I just want to know if this seemed any _more familiar_."

"Well, of course it's familiar," Walton said nervously. "It's a dagger! The all look practically the same! And they're dangerous!"

Cadpig turned the dagger so the hilt was facing her suspects. "But as you can see," she said coyly, "this one's a _very unique_ dagger. It's got all these nice, pretty moon symbols on it. Silver moons, pretty silver moons…."

Walton and Russell shuttered at these words.

Cadpig cocked an eyebrow. She sensed that she was getting somewhere. "You boys know something about silver moons? What about you, Maud? Anything? Anything at all?"

None of the suspects answered.

"Hmmm…." Cadpig said, pleased with how things were proceeding..

"Okay, you got them," Jake whispered, "now twist the blade in a little farther. Figuratively, of course."

Cadpig knew he was right. It was time to bring this baby home. "You know," she said, "before our frenzied friend here went completely off his nut, he mentioned something about an Order of the Silver Moon. Now, does that ring any bells?"

Walton and Russell were positively sweating and shivering now. Cadpig had them completely on the ropes. She could tell that they were about ready to confess everything. But while Cadpig reflected on how she must have a special gift for sweating perps, her hopes were shattered. For the three were saved just in the nick of time.

"The Order of the Silver Moon?" came a deep, commanding voice from behind. "That's nothing but a myth!"

Everyone – Cadpig, Lilly, Jake, Walton, Russell, Maud, and the other patrons, turned to see the proud form of MacGregor standing there. He approached slowly.

"Ah, my two fine ladies," he said, "it's so wonderful to see you again. Now you simply must let me buy you that drink…."

"Actually, I got that covered," Walton volunteered, but he was quickly shut up when MacGregor flashed him a stern look.

"Well, well," Cadpig said coolly, "why am I not surprised to see you here?"

MacGregor gave her a very wide (and very, very fake) grin. "It's the most popular spot in town for canines. What can I say? I'm a regular!"

"Okay, so maybe you'd like to explain who this is!" Cadpig said, pointing the dagger at Roland.

"Never seen him before," MacGregor answered, a sudden fire coming into his voice that told all that he would not be trifled with. "And, for my two cents, I don't think young ladies should be playing with dangerous implements, do you? You should drop it before you end up hurting somebody!"

"I'm the one who'll decide what I do with – yaaaaaahhh" Cadpig dropped the cloak and dagger and began to fall to her knees. Her head felt like it had burst into flames. A satisfied look crossed MacGregor's face as he watched her struggle.

Jake and Lilly quickly grabbed Cadpig to steady her.

"He's hurting her!" Lilly yelled.

"You stop this, or else!" Jake threatened.

MacGregor just shrugged and smiled cheerfully. "Why, I haven't even _touched her_!"

Not physically, perhaps, but in her mind, Cadpig could feel his presence. A dark presence, a presence as black as his fur was white. He was burrowing into her mind, trying to seize it, trying to take it over. Cadpig knew instantly that MacGregor was trying to mentally cripple her.

But through all the pain, Cadpig had hope. She knew that this arrogant white wolf-dog had just picked the wrong girl to mess with. For, if there was anyone who had mastered their mind enough to fight back against any attack, she could.

Cadpig moved quickly in her mind, collecting enough energy to form a barrier between the darkness and her mind's central channel, where the pathway to the chakras was located. She knew that any force which sought to control a person had to first control their seven chakras, their seven seats of consciousness. And Cadpig was not about to let this happen.

It was painful, but the barrier stood. Cadpig felt the dark energy halt and vainly break itself against her mental barriers. The others, looking on, noticed a slight look of frustration inexplicably appear on MacGregor's face. He was being denied and Cadpig could feel that he did not like it. She felt herself almost smile because there was more denying left to do – and she knew MacGregor really would not like what was about to come.

"_Om Tara Tutara Tura Soha Om!"_ Cadpig said under her breath. Her eyes opened, she was ready. Immediately, her mental barriers shot out a blast of green energy that expelled MacGregor's black energy from her mind and ricocheted it back toward him. Cadpig knew well that, for most practitioners, that would cause massive damage. Perhaps even sending all the damage his way that he had been about to send hers.

Cadpig did not want to see it go that far. No matter who MacGregor was or what he had done, not even he could deserve to feel the full effects of such a dark maneuver. But if he felt just enough to knock him unconscious, no harm, no foul.

Cadpig let herself smile at her victory as she rose back to her feet. She watched as MacGregor's energy flew back his way, cutting a straight path for his own mind. But the smile was soon gone. This was because she had discovered that MacGregor was not most practitioners. For, as the dark energy was about to strike him, he used a great and concentrated mental push to send it flying away, this time in the direction of Lilly.

Before Cadpig could do anything, Lilly screamed in pain and collapsed toward the ground. She was only saved from hitting the floor by Jake firmly seizing her body and lifting it back up. But Lilly had already been rendered unconscious. Cadpig knew that things otherwise looked grim. Lilly had just begun her training and could not successfully resist like she had. This Cadpig knew all too well.

Cadpig was able to establish a psychic link with Lilly, but this was little cause for hope now that she could see that her worst fears were true. MacGregor's energy had gone straight for Lilly's chakras and had taken most of them over, shutting down Lilly's consciousness piece by piece. Cadpig knew she could try to expel the evil energy from Lilly, but she did not know if she could transfer it fast enough to stop the darkness before it devoured Lilly's consciousness completely. Actually, scratch that. For Cadpig doubted very much that she could do anything that fast.

Cadpig let out a panicked gasp as she realized that she might be too late to save her friend. After everything that had happened, after what she had promised Lilly and all she had done to protect her, she might have already failed her. This time, she might truly be too late after all.

* * *

**Would Cadpig be able to save Lilly in time?**

**Or would Lilly succumb to MacGregor's dark power?**

**Whose force and will would ultimately prove stronger?**

**Read on.**


	12. The Hierophant

**Last we left Cadpig and Lilly, Lilly was collapsing under psychic attack and Cadpig did not think she could save her in time.**

**Will she find a way? And shall our heroines come any closer to finding the answers they seek?**

**These questions and more are answered in...**

* * *

**XII. The Hierophant. XII.**

* * *

But then Cadpig realized something. It was a small something, but perhaps it was just enough of a something to give her hope. She noticed that, whereas most of the chakras had been captured, Lilly's heart chakra was holding out. There was something there which would not go down without a fight. And maybe if Cadpig could just get it to fight, there might be hope yet. Maybe….

Cadpig knew that if she could just reach out, just connect her heart to Lilly's, if she could just achieve a confluence of hearts, she could save her friend. She would save her friend. She had to save her friend. After all, when two hearts become one, what force on Earth may dare oppose them?

"Lilly," Cadpig projected. "Lilly, you have to listen to me. Fight it, Lilly."

"Cad… Cadpig?" Lilly said in her mind. Cadpig could already tell from her tone that she was becoming distant and confused. Lilly probably did not even remember where she was or what was happening to her, other than that it was something bad. It would take some effort to break through MacGregor's hold, Cadpig knew.

"Lilly, fight!" Cadpig mentally shouted. "You've got to fight it!"

"I don't… I don't…. I can't…."

"Yes, you can, Lilly. I know it's hard, but you can fight. You can win. I'll help you. You won't be alone. I promised you that I'd stick with you, always, and that's a promise I'm going to keep. But I need you to fight back too."

"I… I… I…"

Cadpig sensed that Lilly was getting more distant. Too much longer like this, and she'd be gone completely. Cadpig had to get through to her. But, luckily, she knew of one thing that just might work.

"Lilly, do you trust me?"

"Y-y-yeah…."

"If you trust me, you have to do this. Lilly, do you understand that? You have to do this, if you trust me."

And then, Cadpig smiled. She smiled because she sensed a light emanating from Lilly's heart. A pure white light that was making the best attempt it could against the darkness. It was weak, it was faint, but it was there.

It could not win, not by itself. But all it needed was a little help. And that was something which Cadpig was happy to provide.

"Thank you, Lilly," she thought. "Now just keep fighting, and I'll do the rest. But first, say it with me…."

Two voices rang out together. "_Om Tara Tutara Tura Soha Om!_"

With her link to Lilly's heart, Cadpig let loose the flood of her own energy. Soon, green energy filled Lilly's heart and mixed with white, becoming an awesome combination which struck back at the darkness. Struck back and struck back, verily it struck back, until one chakra, two chakras, all seven chakras were free.

Soon, two lavender eyes fluttered open. Lilly looked up at Jake as he held her tight.

"J-J-Jake? You caught me," she said quietly.

"Hey, what are friends for?" he said with a gentle smile.

A small flicker of a smile appeared on Lilly's still-dazed face. "You caught me even though I'm a w… a wol… a Canadian?"

Jake smiled. "Don't let it get around, okay?"

Cadpig smiled too to see Lilly alright. But then she remembered something. The darkness, what had happened to the darkness? Cadpig realized that it could not have ricocheted, or she would have seen it go.

But when she turned toward MacGregor, she saw that he had fallen into a sitting position on the floor and that he looked as though he had just lost a ten-round boxing match. Walton, Russell, and Maud had gathered around, trying to see if there was anything wrong with him, though it was fairly obvious that there was.

Cadpig could see that the darkness could not have rebounded; MacGregor was waving them away and thus had kept most of his senses. But something must have happened. Then it all clicked. MacGregor was acting exhausted because he was! The combination of Cadpig's and Lilly's energies must have been too much to fight. It had not only repulsed the darkness; it had destroyed it. And MacGregor, with his energy so dispersed, had collapsed from fatigue.

Cadpig now approached him; she knew she had won and it was time to press her advantage. Standing over him in triumph, she said. "Now, MacGregor, maybe you could tell me something about the Order of the Silver Moon."

The bystanders were now all amazed and curious. They were whispering to each other excitedly. "Did you see that? What happened? What's this Silver Moon business?"

None of them had been able to see the mental battle between Cadpig, MacGregor, and Lilly, but they all knew that something strange and marvelous had just occurred. And, as is always the case, the fact that they did not have the whole story just made it all the more intriguing and beguiling to them.

"There is no Order of the Silver Moon!" MacGregor barked in futile rage. "It's just a myth!"

Cadpig smirked. "You sure about that? Because what just happened was no myth."

"You know what, old man?" Russell said. "I think you've had too much to drink. Why don't we get you out of here before you hurt yourself?"

He and Maud immediately picked MacGregor up and began to drag him away. Cadpig thought it was somewhat amusing that they thought they could so easily get away and prepared to stop them. Then she saw that Walton was just standing there, apparently too stunned to help.

"Walton, you mind helping?" Russell asked.

"Um, no, I don't think I will…." Walton said, his voice gaining a measure of strength as he said it.

"Walton!" Maud yelled. "You help out or we're through, you hear? Through!"

Walton seemed struck by a pain, a startled, burning pain. And yet, he did not move. For all his pain, a certain strength seemed to be gathering within him. He would not move. "I'm sorry, Maud," he said, "but I can't…. I just…. I can't…."

"Hmph!" Maud said as she and Russell continued to drag MacGregor out of the club.

"Not so fast!" Cadpig ordered as she began to move toward them. But then, she felt a paw gently touch her shoulder.

"Let them go," Walton said. "I can tell you everything you want to know."

Cadpig looked from Walton, then to the escaping others, then to Walton again. She was not sure what to do. Then she saw Jake behind Walton, still cradling Lilly.

"Cadpig, let them go," Jake said. "Lilly needs you more right now."

"No, no…" Lilly said quietly. "I'm… I'm fine." She tried to stand up and away from Jake's comforting grasp, but ended up slipping and falling back into his forelegs.

Cadpig nodded. Jake and Walton were right. There would be other opportunities to go after the bad guys. But Lilly, perhaps Jake, and very probably Walton all needed her more right now.

Walton escorted them to a series of chairs far in the back, where they could be reasonably away from all the prying eyes and curious ears now affixed upon them. Lilly still walked with difficulty, as her thin legs seemed to have lost nearly all feeling. Cadpig and Jake helped her to a chair which, to their surprise, Walton pulled out for Lilly. As soon as Lilly had sat in it, Walton pushed it back into the circle, moving it as gently as possible the whole time.

"I'm sorry, Lilly," he said. "I never meant for this to happen to you."

Lilly looked up at him, her lavender eyes shimmering in amazement. "You called me Lilly."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Walton said, embarrassed. "I meant Lollie."

"No," Lilly said, surprising firmness in her voice. "You were right the first time."

"Oh, glad to hear it," Walton said as he sat down.

Cadpig and Jake took their seats opposite each other and perpendicular to the other two.

"Okay, now, Walton," Cadpig said, her voice going from gentle to demanding, "_spill!_"

"Look," Walton said. "I never meant for this to get so out of hand. I didn't even realize that the Silver Moon was capable of such things."

"Hmph," Jake said, not believing him. "Then why did you join them?"

Walton sighed. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes as he tried to explain. "When I first met MacGregor, he was the only one who seemed to want to hear my theory about the universe…."

"You mean, the washing-machines spinning around each other?" Cadpig asked.

"Yeah, that one. He was willing to take it seriously. He even listened to my ideas about the end of the universe. I told him, that it's like when bleach is added to a washing-machine***** and so everything is wiped clean and becomes white again. The existence of the cosmos is a continual process of bleaching, you see. Each time bleach is added to the spinning washing machines spinning in a washing machine by the celestial laundryman, a new universe is created as old stains are wiped out so that new stains can find their way in. So, it's all a matter of–"

"Normally, I'd be fascinated by these ideas," Cadpig interjected, "but, in this case, get on with it."

"Oh, right. Well, MacGregor was the first person who ever accepted what I believe in, and he said he knew of a place where more people would accept it and even want to explore it more. That was the Silver Moon. That's where I met Russell and Maud, where I first discovered I could write poetry, and where I seemed to fit in for the first time in my life."

"Clearly," Jake said, "that love-fest wasn't what was going on tonight."

"Now, Jake, don't interrupt Walton when he's remembering past delusions," Cadpig said. "It's not nice."

"Thanks," Walton said as he continued. "But then, over time, as I got through more and higher and higher levels of initiation, things started to get… strange. MacGregor started talking about this 'mistress' who we had to set free from her otherworldly prison. He said we each had to do anything in support of that goal, no matter the costs and consequences."

"And yet there were no warning bells?" Jake said. "Nothing at all that made you say, 'Hey, maybe this is a cult?'"

He promptly got a sharp look from Cadpig and fell silent.

"I just didn't want to believe it," Walton said. "So I told myself it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I just pretended things were still normal and still good. I mean, what life would I have without this? Mom's never really understood me and dad… well, who knows what forgotten beach along the West Coast he's at today, getting 'inspiration' for his 'paintings.'" Walton applied air-quotes as he said this. "You know, I don't think he's ever sold one. I don't think he's ever completed one! So I couldn't face the truth. And then when MacGregor said that these two white females were coming into town and that we needed them…. Well, he said neither of you would be hurt, but that the mistress needed you!"

"He knew we were coming?" both Cadpig and Lilly said together.

"And I believed him!" Walton said, burying his face into his paws.

"But we didn't even know we were coming until we came," Lilly said.

"Unless," Cadpig said, "somebody's been trying to manipulate things for a lot longer that we've suspected. Walton, tell me everything about this 'mistress' of yours!"

Walton lifted his head up from his paws long enough to shrug. "I don't know anything about her. MacGregor said it was all above our levels of initiation, that only he was prepared to know about her. The rest of us were expected to serve without question."

"No, not a cult at all…." Jake said mockily.

"Shhhhh!" Cadpig replied curtly.

Walton once more let his head fall into his paws in grief. Instinctively, doing what she did best, Lilly reached out a paw to comfort him. The problem was that she was still very weak and the effort proved too great. She ended up spilling out of her chair. She would have fallen to the ground had not a pair of forelegs caught her. Walton's forelegs.

"You really know how to make a catch of a girl, don't you?" Lilly said as she looked up at her newest rescuer.

"I do what I can," Walton responded happily as Jake and Cadpig helped Lilly back into her seat.

"So, to sum up your story, Walton," Cadpig said with unbridled enthusiasm, "we're all just pawns in a giant game of chess."

"Four-sided chess," Walton said. "You know, MacGregor invented that. He said the mistress wanted it. I can't even guess why."

"This story just gets creepier and more bizarre by the sentence," Lilly observed.

Walton shook his head. "This never should have happened! I never should have let him take it this far. I mean, I knew something was wrong when he sent Roland to kidnap you. And yet I still had to rig that Catherine Wheel to save his furry, incompetent hide! I wish now that I never did."

"Where is Roland, anyway?" Jake asked.

All four looked toward where they had last left the captured foe. There they saw Roland, still tied-up snugly and gibbering like a fool, but being used as an impromptu dance-partner by a fat Bulldog with a limp as several other patrons cheered wildly.

"I love Friday night at the _Bloodhound_," Walton said.

Seeing that Roland was in as good paws as could be expected, the four returned to their conversation.

"So, what finally made you decide to give it up?" Cadpig asked.

"Just now," Walton answered. "I saw that massive attack he did on you and Lollie. Then I had to accept that something very wrong was going on here. I had to accept that MacGregor is… is…"

"So far off his rocker he makes the new daily rates at the theme parks seem reasonable?" Cadpig volunteered.

Walton nodded. "Yeah. I guess you might phrase it that way."

But then Lilly realized something. "Did you just say… massive attack?"

Walton nodded. "Yeah, it was clear as day to see."

"You saw?" Jake and Cadpig exclaimed together, neither of them having paid much attention to this the first time.

Cadpig now turned upon Jake. "You saw?"

"Of course I saw," Jake answered. "Saw plain as day, like Walton said. How could I not see?"

Cadpig tilted her head so that her ears cascaded down her left shoulder. "Wow, I never thought that you could be that sensitive! Psychically, I mean."

"Um, thanks…. I think," Jake answered. "But I'll tell you what; that seriously freaked me out! Come on; that is not normal! Black and green and white mists just floating around. What's going on here, Cadpig?"

Cadpig rolled her eyes. "Jake, if you had been listening, you would know full well what was going on. Didn't I tell you had to work on your listening skills?"

Jake shook his head. "I know what's going on. I just want to know what's going on!"

"And your communication skills, apparently," Cadpig added.

Jake was getting flustered, but he tried to control himself. "What I mean is, I know what Walton said, but it still doesn't make sense to me. How can anything like this, with all this magic and mysticism, be true?"

Cadpig smiled knowingly. "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."******

Jake was more confused than ever. "Who's Horatio?"

"What I mean, honey, is that just because it doesn't make sense to you, doesn't mean that it isn't real."

"Oh, I know that. I know that from having dated you for so long. But who's Horatio?"

Cadpig smiled a sweet, condescending smile. "Can we talk alone. Just the two of us? Like, alone?"

"I guess," Jake said, puzzled.

Before he could do more, Cadpig literally leapt out of her chair and was guiding him away by the paw. She led him over a few feet to where there was some open space. Then she looked over to make sure the other patrons were not paying attention.

"Jake, dear, I won't lie," Cadpig said. "There's a lot more danger here than I previously thought. You're in danger, Lilly's in danger, even Walton's in danger now."

"And you're in danger," Jake observed.

"Yeeeaaa…..uh-uh," Cadpig responded.

"What do you mean 'uh-uh'? Cadpig, if we're in danger, than you are too."

Cadpig smiled. "I'll be able to take care of myself. Don't worry. Me and Lucky and Rolly and Spot used to get into much worse scrapes than this."

Cadpig paused for a moment and fell silent. She was reflecting on younger days. Now, Lucky and Rolly had already found new homes and she did know if she would ever see them again. As for Spot, Spot was still back at the farm and her company had helped Cadpig during the many days when there was nothing else but loneliness. Yet, Cadpig had felt that they had grown rather distant for some reason. And besides, the farm was itself no longer in Cadpig's life, so Spot was as gone as the rest of them.

"No, I don't think quite like this," Jake counted, awakening Cadpig from her reverie. "Not with magic or whatever that was. It was magic, right?"

"What… you would probably see as magic," Cadpig answered coyly.

"How can you even compare that to anything that happened before?" Jake was practically at his wit's end by now.

Cadpig tilted her head and with one eye half-closed, gave Jake a look of 'you know better'. "Remember DeVilVille?" she said.

Jake fell silent as he remembered an adventure he had forgotten. And now he did not have anything that he could say. He knew he had lost this round.

"So, I'll be fine," Cadpig said. "But there is real danger here, real evil. I don't know what it is, but I feel it. I wish I had never brought Lilly here…."

She paused as she saw Jake's crestfallen face. She put her paw on his shoulder to comfort him. "Well, shall we say, there are some reasons I wish I had never brought Lilly here. There are others that make me glad we came."

As Jake lifted up his head and smiled, Cadpig continued. "But we probably would have ended up here no matter what. It's because of me and Lilly and the special connection we share. Maybe that's how you ended up here too – the connection between you and me – but…."

"Okay, Caddy, tell me straight up, what is it with you and Lilly?" Jake asked.

Cadpig looked over her shoulder at where Lilly and Walton were talking. "You could say… it's almost like we're two halves of the same soul."

"So, does this mean that I can ask her out and you'd be okay with it?" Jake said with a joking smirk.

"I'd still break your skull, but I'd be a bit more understanding as I did it," Cadpig responded playfully, giving him a smirk of her own.

As soon as Cadpig and Jake had left, Walton had dropped his head back into his paws for a third time. "What am I going to do?" he moaned. "What am I going to do?"

Lilly reached out again and, this time managing to stay up, put her paw on his shoulder. "It's alright," she said. "You didn't know what you were doing. We all forgive you."

"I wasn't talking about that," Walton said as he returned his glasses to his face, then took them off again so that he could wipe tears from his eyes. "I was talking about Maud. What am I going to do without the love of my life! My life is ruined!"

"I know the feeling," Lilly said as she looked down. "The love of my life left me, too, you know."

"What? Oh yeah, right," Walton said, the realization taking a moment to appear in his face. "He left you for… your uncle, is that right?"

Lilly closed her eyes as she tried to get _that_ mental image out of her head. When she opened them, she said, "No, my sister," and then looked down to the floor.

"Ah," Walton said as he too looked down at the floor. "Then it seems to me that we're in the same boat. And two people like us should never have had to go through such things."

"No, we shouldn't," Lilly answered.

She brought her paw down from his shoulder. To her surprise, he grasped her paw in his.

"Two lonely wolves, two wolves unfairly dumped by their loves because they're different. It's not right."

"No, it's not."

Walton lifted up his grey-blue eyes, so that they locked with Lilly's lavender eyes. "Maybe we should be lonely… together."

Lilly felt her breath swept away. She did not know how to respond. So, as soon as she found her voice, she said the only thing she felt she could; a very quiet "Okay."

Before either could say more, this little moment was broken up. "Hey guys, hope we aren't interrupting anything," Cadpig said as she and Jake arrived.

"Cadpig, can I talk to you alone?" Lilly said hurriedly.

"Yeah, I guess," Cadpig said, surprised by the tone of Lilly's voice.

Lilly quickly got up and started walking in the direction Jake and Cadpig had just come from.

"We're not playing musical chairs now, are we?" Jake said in exasperation.

Cadpig gave a confused smile and a shrug in response and then hurried after Lilly.

Jake fell down into his chair next to Walton. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments.

Finally, Jake spoke, just to clear the air. "So, you're not a complete jerk after all?"

"It appears not," Walton answered. "You still seem like an absolute philistine, though, if you don't mind my saying."

"Spoke too soon," Jake muttered.

"Okay, what's up?" Cadpig asked Lilly once they had reached a suitable distance.

"I think I'm engaged," Lilly responded.

Cadpig positively beamed. "Oh, Lilly, that's wonderful! I always thought you had something of a thing for Walton."

Lilly smiled back. But it was a small, half-hearted smile. "Well, I guess… I guess he'd be okay, if I had to settle with not having Garth in my life."

Cadpig looked at her reprovingly. "Tsskk, now, Lilly, we have to get you to let go of the past. Garth is gone, Walton is here. Don't ignore the flowers of today because yesterday you had roses. If you keep pining after Garth, you'll miss what's right in front of you!"

Lilly's eyes flickered away from Cadpig's face and back again. "I know, but… that's the thing. Something happened. When MacGregor invaded my mind, he did something. Or undid something. Things are different now."

Cadpig's eyes suddenly changed. Lilly thought they looked concerned, which they did, but she also noticed a hint of something else. There seemed to be a rather strong interest in those azure lights. Little did Lilly know why Cadpig would be so interested, or how long she had been waiting for something like this to occur.

"Go on," Cadpig said.

Lilly shrugged as she looked away again, feeling uncomfortable under the suddenly piercing nature of Cadpig's sky-blue gaze. "It's just that… Garth… something about Garth… It's still fuzzy up here, but I think… I think I married Garth. But Kate married Garth. But I married Garth… first? Yeah, that's it. Or is it? I don't know, but I remember. There was a ceremony and we were wed. And Kate and Humphrey were mated too. And everything was happy and… and…. But how is that possible? How is that possible if Kate married Garth?"

"Lilly, we need to get you out of here now," Cadpig said, grabbing her foreleg and leading her away.

"But, wh-why?" Lilly said, completely confused.

"Come on, Jake, time to go," Cadpig said in a singsong way as she rushed past where Jake and Walton were sitting. She grabbed onto Jake and with ease lifted him from his chair.

Walton himself rose as they were going. "But what about me?"

Cadpig paused in the middle of rushing the other two out of the club. She stared at Walton, recognizing how much danger he'd likely be in on his own.

"Okay, Walton, you can come too," she said.

"Jolly good," Walton said with an oblivious smile as he followed them out of the club. Once they were outside, Cadpig let go of Lilly and Jake, but did not slacken her pace. And the other three knew that to fall behind would not be allowed or accepted. Something serious was going on, though none of them knew what. But clearly Cadpig knew, even if she was not telling anybody.

She was too busy to tell anybody. Cadpig was on a mission, one whose completion might finally bring to light all the answers she sought. It might finally put this entire mystery into a much clearer perspective. And if there was one thing Cadpig loved, it was clarity.

* * *

***Thanks goes to Dancing Lunar Wolves for suggesting this idea.**

**** _Hamlet_, Act I, Scene V.**

* * *

**What does Cadpig have in mind?**

**And just who (or what) is MacGregor's "mistress"?**

**Shall our heroines be able to unravel this mystery before worse things come to pass?**

**Read on.**


End file.
